your face ignited the burners
and fueled those ghost machines
the shredders and compactors
consuming mindlessly

the machines they wrapped me in plastic
and stuck me on a hanger
put me on hold for a couple years
just in case you want to break your vows

the workers stuck me with red hot pokers
singed x’s in my flesh
laughing and joking with each other
I remember they all looked like you

that plastic never let me breathe
I slowly began to choke on thick air
reassuring myself the gag would pass
I’d soon be floating in cold water

staring through the plastic
I was looking for an answer
for all this dragged out decay
soon I was nothing but bone and plastic

soon the staring brought a face
which looked at my condition
I pushed to make a sound, any sound
that I was dying and to expire

the face was neutral and moved along
I heard it as it left
“this place needs to take out the trash
so I can be a happy worker”

so there I went in plastic
to the furnaces of ghost land
the only way was to burn the evidence
and I was incriminating

I turned to flames you turned the handle
to shut the furnace door
and thereupon your finger smoked
in contact with the irons

you cried and begged for mercy
as your fingerprint, it sizzled
and you left my ashes to your back
to dwell on a swelling blister

my body cooked my chest it melted
until nothing else was left
I burned to melt for you
and you only wanted some fuel
2002