Distillations (Poetry)

Words are all that’s left
when the rest is boiled away
fraction by fraction
the science of no body
since the essence bubbles free
released from flesh — a distillation
at last the unadulterated me

I was amalgamated once
with other selves
false unwanted properties
too dense and image-conscious
for a simple life

The years have shed them
one by one
burnt off — reduced
to this naked soul alone
hovering beyond old smoke —
that still-smouldering dark sea ...

These days I dream the taintless tang
of immortality