m-m-m-mahler

too late to listen to Mahler

after a life time of movies

surprise is cliche

and thrill spill

 

too late to read

numerous novels

for similar

excuses

 

even Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s

honey

won’t

heal me

 

what’s left

is the aching

art of what’s left

of the 21st century

 

as we slide past

apocalypse

and barely

notice it