He needs . . .

Note: This is the correct version. Never post after 36 hours of no sleep - he tells himself.

He writes about death

because it keeps him alive:

like the beer keeps him hydrated

and the cigarettes force his lungs

to inhale

and exhale

in metred sympathy.

This ritual –

he calls it 'religion':

a faith

purely paradoxical

and pietistically obscene.