A  locked door.  Walls white, whiter
than a clown's glove at high flame.

        The medication window is lit with
       balloon coma.  Good patients
       sleep pressed against moist elastic.

A hand unwashed.  Friendly or genteel
enough to be shook w/ cuffs.


   The smoking den stinks 
   of silence and non-sequiturs. The fingers
   wave lit in nicotine flame.



A lamb unwashed.  Brittle wool, hooves 
pumping upside down, washing tenor
metes from the face.