no black dots please

when he asks the boy in the mirror

what he wants for himself in the future

a shrug sends the letters, "stability, 9-5, an apartment,

a dog and a cat and some plants to look after and a plastic Christmas tree

to leave behind until the summer" but he doesn't really know

if that's his definition of home, of true home,

and maybe it's cause he's afraid to hope for something better,

stares at the blank page below, scared of the unknown, terrified of the words

that will follow, of the mistakes, of the eyes gripping gavels, of the tongues and the sentence, of the period, no periods please, just commas, just semicolons, just exclamation points, anything but that black dot that swallows everything whole, please me and twirl me around in ampersands instead and strike through me with dashes and slashes, keep me going, i don't want to die, sleeping's such a tease of what's next and will always will be, no black dots please