Once or twice, maybe thrice
More could be said instead
But another word left unheard
Echoes through the red of my broken head.

If canopies and similies
Were built of steel to feel
Perhaps the structure wouldn’t rupture
When you discover what’s real as you kneel.

Only once, never twice, never thrice
Left unsaid words in my head
Things I dreamed–and these they seemed–
To be without dread nor thought of the dead.