Urgent Monkeys

small openings. long tunnels. the end boasts. popcorn thighs and candy trousers. the flesh of witches upon which to feast.

the dead. the deader. the difference between them teeth. the bite of apathy. the chew of starvation. open boxes. thick with nothing. a marathon of paper cuts. a ceremony of bandages. no blood.

quiet trains. gentle lies.

the end of the world comes in blinks. a silent ambush. slowly going blind. first everything far disappears. and eventually. even the things closer.

the war wears her. in ill-fitting sweaters. in jeans too tight. she dances. to the music. of absent lovers. a rabbit racing against a tortoise. the battle befriends each soldier. eager orphans. nursed on the teat of the gun.

big funerals. small caskets. the cadavers try us on. the dizzy of open dresses. the lilt of tensing zippers. at the bottom of the rope. the end of the world in hiccups.

a tense recital of skin. as she insists the stage.

small storms possessed with big floods.