Every Hair is Numbered

by Michael Gregory





Every granule of dust is deadly

When swallowed whole or taken through the pore

My poverty is reflected completely

In the shattered glass above the broken door

The stairs collapsed, the wallpaper is peeling

Poppies falling slowly towards the floor

Death attempted here, but now he’s kneeling

In the shattered glass above the broken door



You woke up and whispered, “I’ve been faking,

I’m distracted by the siren’s urgent horn,

Daunted by the pace of England’s shaking

The frontline of where everything is torn.”

I turned and said, “You have to leave, it’s morning”

Wave the petal, pull the poison thorn

Things, they just don’t happen without warning, on

The frontline of where everything is torn



Forget that there’s a path that leads to glory

The power marshalled there you cannot keep

There’s no beginning, no end to every story

Because you sleep in me and are asleep

The master’s hand is heavy on the youngest

Buried with the others, a thousand deep

Rows of stones, and yours seems like the longest

Because you sleep in me and are asleep



I took the crucifixes from the table

You know by now by whom you were deceived

How is it that I find myself ungrateful, for

The blessings I unwittingly received

You look around, you wouldn’t know there’s trouble

The conflict felt so carelessly conceived

Tonight, I’ll go looking through the rubble, for

The blessings I unwittingly received



You believed that every hair was numbered,

Who knew that you were counting from the start,

They’ve grayed, faded away as I’ve slumbered

And drifted farther from the matter’s heart

But I conferenced with the letters that you left me

I checked your math, you never missed the mark

There’s no culprit in love or in theft, but

We’re drifting farther from the matter’s heart





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