unsolved mysteries
chalk outline.
in the empty space
i lose who I am
drawn in child’s
rainbow colors,
primary, impermanent,
my silouette
a heavy downpour
washed away
down a glutted gutter.
i search out my remains
scattered across years,
myself victim and suspect,
even if all i find be
bones picked clean,
shreds of colorless fabric,
remnants, grey hairs, plucked
follicles, gnawed, spit out fingernails.
at times, i forget who i am looking for
because i can not remember
who i was supposed to be.
led to an abandoned house,
finding clues in the refuse,
excretions, on filthy,
half-burned, soiled mattresses,
discarded, evidence-stained,
sinister, sordid.
rodent eyes witnessing,
waiting to feast on the witnessed.
a basement, moldy mementos, clippings,
photos with scratched out faces,
blank birth certificate,
death certificate written for the future.
an untitled draft, official biography,
expurgated, censored,
a forgotten nobody,
skeletons of a poetry formed
into the shapes of extinct animals,
playthings of predators.
eventually, i will detect
my last known location.
it will be here with you
plotting out
the perfect murder.