Divergent Alchemists

The world returns. In desperate winces. Cover our hearts in skin. Play us. Like drums. The alien looks on from his mediocre temple. The world deprives us of ourselves. Bit of chewing gum. The sugar slowly excreted. Until only the dense hull is left.

Still. It keeps chewing on us.

He cried he wanted friends. I was insulted. That he should suspect I was still so naive. He bemoaned his loneliness. An empty grave searching for a corpse. Throwing stones on the hopscotch board. Pretending it mattered where they would land.

Anyone. Or any square. Self enough. For the man without a mirror. For the wolf without a child to eat.

The world weakens and I plan my escape. While it struggles for breath. Prosaic warnings fail the determined. I want to know. How much they suffer.

I want to wake the doll. Rip the lipstick from her grin. Blame her for everything. As all men do. I want the minutes to wait. Listen. When I try to explain.

How close I once was.

And there. There is the drug. The obvious math.