keep your nerves
at the back of nowhere
leaving tiny traces of
a formaldehyde smile
for everyone to dissect
like it's the latest kind
of a wrongful death
you're damned if you do
and a ghost if you don't
haunting the minds of
puerile, fleeting crowds,
caught in a lightning storm
but never feeling the rain
so sink into it, sink into
everything and nothing all
at once, creeping slow,
wandering skin barely touching
papers strewn across lips
and simply keep your nerves
somewhere no one could
tangle them into knots.