at the end of the day

at the end of the book

we just want that happy ending

everything wrapped up with a neat little bow

the villian gets their comeuppance

and the hero gets true love and saves the day

with a glorious sunset we nestle close and bask in the finals rays of the day

contentment deep in our bellies

all’s well that ends well

nary a dry eye in the room

fade to black

roll credits

thank the gaffer no one quite knows the impact of

best boy

caterers

we don’t see the great villian rape and pillage the land after the lion roars three times

the kingdoms crumble into disrepair

new dynasties rise and fall

the sweet note of pure love warped and distorted into a tiresome game of familiar tortures

we stumble out of the dark theatre into the bright unflinching light of reality

acclimating to gravity and pressure again

two hours of voyeuristic pleasure dissolved into baking heat and lemmings rushing the same cliff

the fairy tale ending ends when it does on purpose

like the best cut of meat

remove from heat and allow it finish as it rests

the messy stuff is the basis of existence

no one stops to shit in an action film

they play out a ballet with bullets and blow up the scenery for miles on the most fantastically open covert missions through war torn lands

restrooms are for peace time

chapters are not devoted to the minutiae of bowels and bladders

we blame the dog in the real world not on canvas or paper or shot in high resolution before shooting the bad guy dead center of the forehead and saying something snarky to the camera

sunglasses indoors

but we want that ending for ourselves

candlelit dinners every evening followed by love making until dawn

no draining sinus canals or feeling bloated with gas

sweeping dance moves across balck and white checkered floors to the bedroom with a canopy bed and roaring fire going

a bear skin rug across the polished dark wooden slats

sex basket hanging demurely in the corner of the room

feather boa draped casually over the vinyl suit hanging from the open wardrobe

collars and leashes and ball gags

oh my

instead we are greeted with tension headaches and a lack of energy from gmos and corn syrup

artificial flavors and preservatives that cancel out any health benefits the modified seeds didn’t remove to increase harvest yields

a happy ending is a smiling teary eyes family gathered around you as death calls for a last sleep after a long and fulfilling life

there are no happy endings

just a series of escalating misery until it ends

you watch everything you love grow old and fall apart and then are struck with the realization that somewhere down the line it happened to you as well

your dreams and aspirations are thick and yellowed like your nails

somehow sharp and brittle

every joint aches from basic movement

an overabundance of hair in unnecessary locations and less and less in the one’s that matter

and we smile wistfully as we watch the hero save the day, get the girl and ride away on his valiant steed

and think to ourselves

that could be me

my happy ending is out there

somewhere

just over the horizon

waiting for me to claim it

another mirage

yet we keep crawling over dunes the size of an office complex

hope springs infernal