Why We Laugh

names. like chalk. erased, but hardly gone.

she would stay awake. to reason with the numbers. giving each one a name. stubborn little pigs. blaming the wolf for the flaws in their houses.

faces. on the tips of her fingers. spilling. slipping away. a cascade of years. disappearing into a long series of unresolved equations.

flesh. like thread. choices like needles. lost in the seamless revisions time has imposed.

he would talk. like no one could hear. but everyone was listening. content in the slow suicide of his loneliness. not ready to die. but more than willing to let it happen.

tomorrow was ours. bought and paid for. except for the fact that it doesn't exist.

we are desperate. we take what we can. and lie about the rest.

hares racing the tortoise.

whispering fairy tales shouting at their ghosts.

distance she's determined is measured in trust rather than years.