Bankrupt
by Nevada Kerr

You cling to me with pledges unspoken
Cover me in fevers that remain unbroken
The rage and tremors of millhouse purgings
Spiral from your mouth like foreclosed urges

I remember the ruin of your passion
The auctioned kisses that bankers rationed
The practiced whispers that love disdains
Nothing survives you when back payments reign

Wind lifts me like dust from the ground
But your eyes watch me and hold me down
The boldest hucksters tried to break our fall
But we were the last of the fliers to crawl

Great seas burn up and dry lands flood
Banished hearts stutter and spit up blood
Rich men with old hands caress our thighs
As we gather waste from their mirthless eyes

We touch in the shadows of the booming years
The gears of industry deafen our ears
Desolation stalks like a clock that smiles
The debtors and beggars on the road of exiles

Written by Nevada Kerr
25th March 2002.