Look inside the mouth
of your terror—

see how it resembles
a threshold into

another life. Mistaken
for a locked room,

an age can pass
like this, frozen in pieces.

A cryo-chamber
pulling the present

infinite
so you can live forever—

or escape death. Reject
the future’s beckoning

maw, split length
of a laugh, confusion

a house that goes on
forever. Paper scales.

I struggle to love you.
You should know, after

everything, how my love
sublimated into rage.

Ask me again what I
learned from defeat.

I know how to unlock the room
now. I dangle from time’s jaw.

You lacked weapons
and ways to return

to the beginning—
here, with my age and gifts,

take them. All our what ifs
ribboning the universe.