Nixzmary Poem by Christopher J. Grasso

On golden shoulders of false angels did you lean
Count these angels in the conviction of countless dreams
Which one day would unfasten your tethers
reclaiming the fractured pith beaten over every wall, floor and ceiling here
a wearied life force whisked from flesh to ash by one gust of wing
vacated and lying aborted chained to the radiator

If the strength of deliverance meant angels pulling you out of your skin
as your head is plunged under the toilet water
this portal you could swim to heaven’s gate I would imagine
holding your breathe and diving down the charitable absurdity
of someone reaching out from the darkened hallway to the outside
pocked with cigarette burns that resemble the formation of birds
escaping the winter from your window

Under white wings where the disaffection of those most crucial dissolved
A miracle which would not abide to the hostility
Or the lamentations bellowed in silence and ignored
For the courtship of this immaculate degradation ended
When the cross thrust down defiantly on your chest as the casket closed

And your afterlife sealed in the fate of cynicism
“Safe in the arms of God”, folded hands sculled on your headstone