trepidation

swimming through oceans of ashes, watch for sharks, watch for red eyes in the shadows

they shut my power off again

jackals in the underbrush, lions in the trees, fish flopping on rain clouds as falcons drown beneath ice

recharge the static between bare feet and hand reaching for the door knob

shuffling slowly towards another six foot steep decline

everywhere the predatory stares follow the trepidation of the pretty prey

eternity

toss spare change into the holy grail, the holey socks of the hokey preacher men with snake oil in one hand and eternity in the other

parables and parallel realities

walk on watery wisdom, turn water into whining refrains, turn bread into waist, waste into wait, waiting into wading through the wastrels and minstrels of eternal evasion

this mortal coil is just a steaming pile of chocolate left by the neighbor’s dog on your lawn, a glimpse into the yawning abyss, a psychic eventuality

dissidents

sleight of hand, slight of frame, out of frame, blurry recollections from the collection plate at the home for dissidents and dysentery survivors

curiosity killed the cat that caught the early bird fat on the early worm

he died young and left a mutilated corpse, eyes burned to cinders that floated in the chasms where serenity held doors to his soul

curled in a cocoon, a womb with a view, a table for two, the doors of the panic room are locked from the outside

a tomb with a view