when the first cracks appeared in the exo skeleton thin wavery maybe a shadow possibly scratch but no cracks he instantly read the end in them remembered everyone he would like to have been kinder to ballets undanced operas never scored   cat        too        agi        tated        to be        stroked   the fissures deepened and widened the plastic paled at the edges a thick black tar began to ooze          what she said to her friends the next morning        what you resolve when she leaves   he became unwilling to defer and yet his intensity had a delicacy like the almond aftertaste in a peach   rippling descant backbeat snarl a buzz on the strings like the rattle of an old man's voice as he tells a young man his surenesss will fade   find the door knock till it opens ask the question don't believe the first six answers