Empty Swivel

by John Godfrey

Your color gets you cheated, well, cheat back
A wall around the empty swivel chair
Over that wall the same again
I’d be the last to stay self-sufficient

and so drown like appendage, like coin
Choir sings to choir and
they sicken each other

Those who earn three-fifths of one care
Those who are sued at birth
step out front and solo as lonely women do

Night introduces sub-words, groans
and abrupt articulations
She is tired, I think, and
I show her to a resting place