the thread pulls apart at
                    intervals

                              measured in
breath held too long


                    surfaces that were
never meant to
                              touch


fragmenting                   into
                    smaller
                              smaller


the weight of
                    incompletion settles
                              between
                    vertebrae


                              accumulates
like dust on
                    surfaces that refuse
                              to be
                    cleaned


the pattern breaks
                              here
                    and here
                              and


                    continuing without
                              direction
toward no
                    particular


                              ending that will not
                    come