i feel them
giant millipedes
clawing scabrously
between my
squinted eyes
and hollow bones
tiny claws
dipped in a
convulsive poison
sending ripples
through fetid
meat tubes inside
this monstrosity
of dying dreams

a manifestation of
bottomless despair
as a strangling
pressure mounting
from the inside out

a chemical spill
piloting a failing
spacecraft through
tunnels of
deluded passion
an artificial intelligence
masking survival
mechanisms as
an honorable excursion
while the universe
does its best
to tear it all apart

this flesh is
nothing more than
a host for
insipid atrophy
a collection of
billions of disparate
organisms flailing
against fact