The lights flicker

Time to move quicker

Clock begins to chime

I’m running out of time

Can you hear the sound

Of my heart begin to pound

Lightning flashes in the sky

Hide, ah it’s too late to even try

What was that?

Oh, it was just a rat~

Uh, no I’ve been spotted

In the blink of an eye

The lightning strikes again

I love the smell of rain

I can’t breathe

Where’d that rat go?

I’m running out of air

Right in my own lair.

So, this is what I get?

I guess~ you never forget—

Is it too late to say sorry?

-*heart begins to beat very slowly*

#STRIKE.

There were ten items on Stash McGee’s to-do list on June, 17, but jumping off a cliff was NOT one of them!

But let me go back to the beginning of Stash’s reckless venture into the drug world which was first on his list. Stash had never done anything right so this would not be the first time! He had boarded a cruise ship in Miami and jumped off the lower deck near Anguilla, in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, he had misjudged the distance and struggled to reach the island floundering through white capped seas. It was harder than he thought because he had a heavy money belt around his waist and was still wearing his shoes! He lay prostrate on the beach for several hours until one of the native islanders found him and dragged him back to his small colorful cottage.

“Hey, what’s up, mon?” asked Banjo, the islander.

“I need to find a place to buy cocaine. Where can I get it?” Stash asked which was probably the dumbest thing he had every uttered.

“Oh, mon, I can help you. I have a friend who can get you coke on St. Martins which is really close and I can take you there in my rowboat for $500.”

Both Stash and Banjo piled into the rickety rowboat and headed in the general direction of St. Martins through the rough seas. Soon the patch on the bottom of the rowboat came loose and the boat began to sink. Stash abandoned ship, deciding to swim to St. Martins which was in view. What Banjo hadn’t told him was that the water was so shallow, he could wade in. Banjo sloshed through the water with him and introduced him to his friend, Stubbs, and then left him to go back home.

“Twenty thousand dollars,” said Stubbs. “Meet me in four hours at the other side of the island by the cliffs and I’ll have the coke for you in a suitcase.”

Stash spent the time while he was waiting drinking island rum. Realizing he was too drunk to walk across the island, he paid someone to take him there and drop him off. But no one was there waiting so he removed the money from his money belt and tucked it into his pants so no one could rob him. He was watching a school of sharks from the top of a cliff when Stubbs came up behind him and put a gun in his back. Rather than give up the money, Stash took a flying leap off the cliff, landing right in the midst of the sharks.

Well, Stash never did finish the nine other things on his bucket list!

You’re magic wrapped in faithlessness

Like the smoke that comes once the match burns down to the pad of the finger and burning nail and torched skin bites at your nose

Like the fetid detritus offered up to a porcelain alter, two fingers clawing wildly at the back of the throat, acid pouring past teeth

Like the wet left behind after sex

The copper penny that sits on the tongue after swallowing blood

You’re fortunes wrapped in the absence of the future

Like the umbilical cord that hangs on, dying, shriveled once the mouth can feed itself

Like rust crawling in cancerous sores across metal in the rain

The bird that flew into the too clean glass, wings broken, feathers bent, eyes rolled back, fog-covered black orbs

You’re fire wrapped in wet

Grass wrapped in weeds

Fruit wrapped in flies

Cars wrapped in accidents

Towers wrapped in suicides

Muscles in spasms

Organs in cancer

Bones in fissures

Skin in infection

Skin in bruises

Skin in scabs

Skin crying plasma and rot

Skin raw, dried, flaking

So many dreams about you

So many times I had you

I can feel your lips

I touched you

But then I wake up and open my eyes

And then come to realize...

It's just a dream

In dreams you can do anything

It's not what it seems in real life

I would close my eyes forever

If it meant I could be with you

I wish you knew

darkness creeps

shadows play

reminding us

of the end of the day

crickets chirp

peepers peep

the sound of summer

rocks us to sleep

Fear starts in the pit of my stomach, twisting and writhing, refusing to leave me alone. Tiny tendrils reach up, spreading like a wildfire that engulfs me and squeezes tightly, making it hard to breathe, limiting my air. Then I take a deep breath. The panic stops and I go back to my business as if it didn’t happen.

But I know that it did.

You are the y

—— and the ou

Crochet of fingers

—— and hairs

Crisscrossing

—— a chemise

You're the latitude

—— and longitude

A new horizon line

—— of film noir's

The where and why

——in infinite chanson

You are the merci song 

—— Come see! comme ca...

#WhatDefinesYou #ComboOfchallenges