process of elimination


Blunt force facts
inexplicably disengaged
on the moment of impact,
spilling, inanimate,
with a pile of bills,	
	different credit cards,
	some coins, credentials,
	a driver's license,
	a one-way transaction.
The picture in the dead man's wallet
was the real mystery.
This wrinkled passenger,
this lingering bit of baggage
was traveling on someone else's ticket
from the man's murky pocket
through the gates of damp leather skin,
looking loved in her visual morgue.
The fragile image recorded
with a flash of her face
that the woman was his
cheese and crackers,
a soft part hardened forever.

He whispered from the dead mouthpiece.

	"I adore you."
	"Just adore?"
	"Beyond adore."
	"Like love?"
	"Beyond even that."
	"Beyond that?"

	death

	"It's only a word," she said.

The slightest clue
securely belted,
inside a paper cup.