Young Writers Society

the light at the end of
the tunnel is dimming.
maybe we are too blind
to see why.

here, we are blinded by
bright lights coming from nowhere
and everywhere,
where the air reverberates the sound
of loneliness and bad memories.

coldness.
the remains of rust carefully painted
onto metal, furrowed tear marks on skin,
the kind of confusion that echoes
throughout the halls.

everyone folds their hands in prayer.

unfurled gods call out
in mock sympathy and ridicule
and we listen.

tame impala plays
in the dark, faint, your boyfriend
steals a new girl's kiss.

the world starts to spin and it feels fine.
a wind-up music box with ballerinas bound
by those purple glue stick remnants
waltz to the sound of cartoons and commercials
detailing tragedy and asbestos exposure.

(if you or a loved one
have been diagnosed with mesothelioma,
you may be entitled to financial compensation.)

i am too accustomed to the sound
of something close to silence and not yet noise
and i have created an orchestra
within my mind made of these afterthoughts
and the not-so-simple clattering of
many cracked church bells.

indian so and so summer ---

my hair is growing out again. i hate it when that happens.
makes everything inconvenient for me and you and her.
the girl i'm talking to about death wants to look away.
she's not really a girl, more so just a skeleton.

there's a small kind of shaking at the end of the world,
then silence. then the sound of bones dropping onto the floor.
i don't want to bend over. i'm growing older and i'm feeling fragile.
my hips haven't ached like this in forever and a long, long time.

nearing the day after armageddon,
i start to confuse myself with the local cemetery.
i go to work at 6 in the morning. i don't know who i do it for.
the only people awake are myself and you and her
and when i'm not there, i feel alive again.

i always get the short end of the stick.
effervescently, i hate everyone with a passion.
the world feels like it is going to end soon --
when i'm there, but mostly when i'm not.