found a fortune cookie in the cupboard while searching for something to quell the savage rumbling i had been attempting to ignore

been in bed all day reading

couldn’t fathom a single reason to rise nor shine

like a thick cloud layer over suburban splendor

more aptly smog over an urban death zone

just another rusted out remnang of former time tested steel

i’ve given up on living between bouts of joyous need

fill my head full of the words of others in an effort to drown the insidious ones singing to me

keep it pitch black in here

music drowning out the sorrow

the occasional lull between songs hints at life outside this jail cell

but even prisoners get their three square meals

and my stomach is rattling the tin cup off the bars in an act of disobedience

so i stumble out of the cave

naked and fearing stepping into the slanted bars of sunshine that mar the living room floor like a grid of lasers to alert the guards of potential jailbreak

quietly pasing through bare cupboards for the smallest bit of sustenance

crumbs in place of delicacies

if you want fed spit out something more than the drek you’ve delivered so far

a masterpiece for a feast

not this dribble

this embarrassment of vocabulary dissent

but with nothing more than strung together incongruence i decided to play good cop

so i creep like a phantom and search

a crinkling of plastic in the far back corner caught my ear

oddly shaped

like a cauliflowered ear

what’s this my gurgling guts proclaimed

a prophecy mass stamped upon thin slips of paper and inserted into a faintly lemon flavored crunchy husk

the remains of fried rice and little chilis

the faintest memories of soy sauce and styrofoam containers

sodden paper bag with the aromas of garlic and bok choy dancing fluidly through the mists of time

let fate decide our fast breaking

let these solemnly printed in red ink words from a random word aggregator define our lives for the day

i almost giggled at the deliciousness of insignificance casting the die on the entire day

dodging spotlights and the well trained noses of the dogs in patrol i made it back to my pen

closed the creaking metal door behind me and crouched in the back corner

if a guard shined his million candlelight beam upon this contraband it would be into the hole with me

the plastic seemed inexplicably loud in the quiet room

the playlist left paused in my harrowing journey

the porous cookie in my hand

now trembling in delight

the acid in my guts bubbling and churning like white water rapids

i snap the treat in two and remove the slip of prophecy

taking care to keep the crunching as close to silent as possible

but it sounds like stones tumbling down from their precipice

an avalanche of mastication

a symphony of kettle drums and gongs

sure to alert the keepers of hidden sweets in the darkened cage

by the flickering light of a lone candle

left unlit except for extreme need

the blood red words were illuminated

a series of numbers

eight, nine, thirteen, twenty three, twenty six, thirty three

i blinked incomprehendingly at this cryptic phrase

ah

these are my lucky numbers

a laugh

tinged with insanity filled my mind

i realized it also filled the room

shh

that was close

the rattle of keys from down the hall and scrape off club against cold stone said the warden almost stood on swollen feet

would have been a beating for sure

i turn the paper over

other hand over the candle flame

too closely

i feel the burning on my palm

the searing of flesh

when i’m sure the coast is clear i read the words inscribed by the Fates for my eyes only

you will die alone

well no shit confucius

i popped the other half of stale cookie into my mouth

dusty sweet with the faintest hint of lemon

gone too quickly and not enough to satisfy the hunger

too disappointed by crimson words of obviousness

dismayed that my hopes and dreams were summed up in four words that had already branded themselves onto my tattered wisp of soul

my secret treat in this one man hell turned out to be yet another teasing glimpse of hope unfulfilled

i blew out the candle and let the oppressive darkness hang upon me like blanket

traitorous guts still grinding

bastard words still humming

the taste of ash from my unfortunate cookie leaving my mouth dry and mind broken