Sit on the carpeted floor of this apartment

Come sit and chat

Been some time

Baby hairs growing into teen hairs

Locks struggling to hold a curl

Perspiration wells up

Deepening those cracks, frown lines

Until the soil is so fine

Lovely lady

Needs a tailor to fix, to fix a sundress

Those pesky strings, clinging onto

Dreams of somewhere hot and cold

Sweating asphalt, slicked

Off road has its rocks and bumps, but

The clock moves behind

The backs of those afraid to exist

Earthquakes of mistakes leaving

Behind a child in rags, a doll

Gripping so tightly

Beaded eyes, glossed, awash in numb fear

Numbed in fear is a lot of numbing

To have fear as the default is a lot of running from the end that is no end

Pain, numbed, requires none

A doll

At the end of it all, there is nothing?

There must be

Something moves beneath the surface

A fish dances from a line

It is like a dark shadow

solidified

crawling down his spine and inside his rib cage

in

and out

suddenly he finds that

he cannot breathe!

and

relief washes over him as his lungs expand with air

is it over, then?

is it gone?

he does not even comprehend its existence until, one day,

as he glances into the mirror and his eyes are illuminated, at last, to that thing protruding from his own self

he watches, horrified, as it manifests deeper and deeper into his flesh, up his neck

he can no longer see his face

and,

the end.