Jeremy Zung
University of Toronto
Class of 2016
Taut sheets as cotton fetters
In curtained cloister bare
Enshroud the shrivelled limbs
Whose fingers flex in fetal curl
'Round liquid sleep.
---
Masked messenger in priestly white,
Hath divined th'encircling doom?
My fallen airways, Medusa's veins spell
Agonies untold.
Lips pursed, throat tight, and orbits sunk,
You scrabble to set me free
Of serpent tubes and catheter lines
Ensnaring, strangling me.
But stenotic hours, austerities
Have hemmed you in too far.
I fault you not, dear Hermes, but quick--
Prescribe your closing mercy:
The noose which crowns your chiselled neck can't
Auscultate mute screams.
I pray: release these sesame pupils to
Spelunk Elysian dreams.