Excerpt From 'The Long Continuum' Poem by Bryan Riley

Living in the halls of the dead;
mouth and eyes filling with sand-
Cries and pleas for help go unheard
as birds of night with razored talons
rip through my being with
meticulous precision

Seeing and unseen.
Being and unacknowledged.
Referred to briefly, then disavowed.
Entering through silent passageways.
Slipping into un-peopled pathways:
Ever alone and silent she creeps.
Filtering, persistently,
down through the mind

A footfall, a shadow,
a fleeting moment are
all she needs
to gain entrance.
And when she's in,
she's in the thick:

Lower they sink-
she can't be shaken.
Slower they fall/
Awaken demons,
darkness, all-
Everything fey and fallow
belongs to her-
She says:

Aqui esta
mi corazon-
Tomalo!