Under Pressure

Under Pressure

Running away,

Hiding in squares,

Churches, attics,

Cemetery, trunks,

The crawl spaces

Under the stairs.

Lungs burning,

Electrocuted,

Pressure boiling

Like kettled air,

Forced through

Narrow confines.

The wheezing,

Sharp whistle of

Ghosts escaping

Seeping sucking

Chest wounds.

Gases expelled,

Corpses return,

Of pleural space

to Earth and sky.

Pews, headstones,

Boxes and rooms.

Heart chambers.

But round flesh

Cannot conform

To hard corners,

The rigid edges,

Or square spaces

Of men we love.