love of labor

love of labor

after she asked
when he spoke

his answer was
questioned

a single, low
reverberation
from a recoiling crowd
of one was enough, it
paralyzed him, he,
her, it, them.

a misplaced kazoo in the atmospheric mix.
a skeletal leaf's crunch under frozen shoe.
a comfort groan in those early wordless hours
from a christ on the cross kind of stretch.

any other sound
preferable to that:
a sound answer to
his own question.