The Last Love on the Left

What do you do

when all the love is gone

promises broken

beds left

cold and crusty

with phantom bodies

What do you do

when the hands are brought back

withdrawing from the embrace

in the silence

of the movie theater

once warm with cackles

secret jokes and jackals

What do you do

when the caress becomes

a baroness

a barred fart

something to hold

heart-to-heart

What do you do

with the love that's left

in the marionette

female vamp

tramp going to a camp

Silver Lake

where all the murders of the heart took place

What do you do

with the silence

after ghosted phonecalls

the zombie of a phone

that stopped buzzing

with new texts

Textile companies

and laundromats

which held secret, corny dreams

of domestic bliss

a man, a woman

two men, two women

on the corners of a lake

nursing babies, nurturing new life

into a world that does not resemble a mess

What do you

with all the love that you have left

The reconciliation of a debt

A checkmark

on the back of a cheek

A benchmark to imaginary geeks

signing off their anon comics

visibly threatened by your presence

What do you do

with all the love in your heart

not directed at anyone in particular

reflected back at yourself