Drenched in cigarette smoke and pain

    She watches cactuses die in California

And dim light illuminates the dark

               Through the passage at the

   end of the stairway to freedom

                             and starvation

       It’s all fleeting

                    The power is out

and the clocks are left ticking

            midnight over and over again

and I’m lost wandering and

                         wondering

    through seconds and hours

Stuck in a moment

          On which a million lives hinge –

     And the battery dies.