poem for purgatory (august)

rolled away in the deep sad, i am all
battered to pieces. i tell you, the countdown to paradise
prefigured by it, the untranslatable word for sorrow/horror.
sitting in the slow of the doom, ocean-mouth
eating me open, vagina-teeth crawling up my spine, sucking in
my hand. no rest, no piece – no peace left
untouched by the sucking ones, little
ghosts, vamping off
my soul and leave, wide marks
on the drain.