Song of the Diet Cola

for Sophie

Fluid of the rags of the magical dead;
last vice of the gentle sober; a good cry
in September rain; holy ghost condensing
along an imitation wet black bough;
what kind of mostly water is this?
Probably you could dissolve
a stolen diamond in it; probably fold
a pint of yogurt down into the hole
and later draw out a bright gold chain;
negative metabolic; zero calorific;
dark matter phosphorescence;
blood of the lamb but unindicted;
tastes of like, maybe? yeah; tastes of
you can’t prove it…and anyway
I’m a tonally distant person now.
I’m a totally different person.