probably won't accept that I've cracked the code until I think the message is "you're not appropriate to this place. You are the missed chance, the consequence of your own lack of determination, the minute too late, the arch beneath which lovers pass, the bush from which eyes peer out, but no one has the guts to see what the eyes are attached to." Is that what they're trying to tell me? I am sitting here blinking at them blinking at me and neither of us are trying to communicate but we each think the other is trying to say "we're the same thing." But we're not sure, and in fact we're wrong, but no one's gonna tell us that. And I can't help but think of you, o ephemeral presence of absence, o double negation, o lack of lack, o incandescent shadow, o reflectionless casketflower...I need help to think of you, because there is no "you" of which to be thought. If I hold your lack of hand, will you favor me with your beautiful lack of smile? Ah, to be kissed by your lack of lips one last time before the mouths of those eyes begin to snap at me with their lack of pity. Fire speaks with an orange tongue, sending words of warmth to lap at my face. Let he who is without a grin take the first sip. Tiny fingers dancing lovingly along my scalp, only to be recognized as what they really are: spider legs.