The sun sets in the department store window

Resembling a bomb going off in slow motion

No doubt tripped by the millionth customer

Or some unknown cosmic fluke

Maybe nothing but a cruel joke

See if the Earthings will stop their bickering

Upon facing the threat of total demise

Ha ha.

Standing in line for a shirt and pair of pants

I can’t imagine anyone but a headless mannequin wearing

Because it’s difficult to conceptualize myself anymore

Buying clothes for an invisible man

To go and stand somewhere else

Perhaps even get paid for it

With money that fades so fast

I might as well eat it

Throw out my dishes

Stuff green bills down my throat

Someone in a high rise office building

Could very well make a killing

With edible coins and currencies

Houses made of bread and cheese

That get stale and useless in the rain

A hunger based economy

I pay again and again for things I don’t need

Sweating powerless in the shade

Of a looming meteor taking aim

I hope I look good for the apocalypse

Hopefully it comes in my sleep

I’m so tired

I just wanted to care for someone

That's all

Nowadays I can barely care

About a single thing

Burst from the hole of space

Strewn across star studded time

Thrown backwards at a great force

I tread water in a cosmic sea

Fumbling as an infant while

You stand on another shore

Waiting while I swim alone

Not daring to dip so much

As a single toe in the sand

I bathe in the reflection of a gaze

Once a stone’s throw away

Now I shiver in the oort cloud

Brightly you burn eons away

An impossible pursuit, this fruitless chase

Love cannot be understood

Revelation comes much too late

Lifetimes are spent wading

Lost through the dark eternity

Until starlight touches our skies

Curl up to sleep on a dinner plate

Awaken feet first in a behemoths belly

That shadow comes alive again

Taking the shapeless form

Of some towering monstrosity

A sore festering in a nightmares

Swollen cheek

Black mass of teeth that knows

Nothing but pain and meat

An ugly spider in the corner

For whom life is a waiting game

Trapped in an iron lung

Lies nothing but a severed head

That must be content to stare

Wide eyed at the ceiling

Till morning feels like coming home

To save the leftovers

For another nightly feast

Can’t remember exactly when

Everything turned gray

And the shadows began sticking

To my sallow face

I don’t know what sorrow succeeded

In finally disfiguring me

Crippling my body under the weight

Of heavy rain

The landscape is bleak as bone

My backyard nothing but dark sky

Ghosts no longer linger here

Insects turn to dust

I quietly waste away in fear

From the silence that stalks this place

Tormenting me like a beast

Calling me by name

A cold child under black blankets

I pray under a godless roof

For someone to appear from nowhere

Out of thin air

But there’s no point in talking

To an empty room

So why don’t I just leave

Take my chances with infinity

Much as I hate

Relying on cold calculators

They keep me company

And don’t ask for much

The not so silver screens

With their artificial lifeforms

Fill gaps in a vacant space

That would otherwise collapse on itself

White noises whispered at night

Mingle with voices in my head

Overcrowding in a thick skull

I can never bring myself to cut the cord

It would only leave me lonely

In a mute world that no longer sings

They switch on and I forget

That someday there is an end

Everything forever sliding downhill

They give me something to do

Too busy for anything now

All time is occupied

Shunning silence

Disregarding the quiet

Pretending not to hear

When I’m being called back

They execute time quick and easily

Exterminate echoes of emptiness

Spreading through my life

Like pests in a decaying house

Things I’d rather kill than face

So as much as I hate it

I lie

Down each night

Asleep with some machine

In my eyes it was a castle

Grandmother’s house by the sea

Looking to the left on the balcony

I thought we were standing

On the very edge of the world

Ships sailed off the horizon

And fell into space

Swimming in the ocean

Was heaven and paradise

Imagining the waves breaking

Rising and chasing only me

A heart that pumped just for one

And I felt like a cell when I swam

In its bloodstream

When you’re small

The world spins because of you

It grew larger each passing day, the first time she had noticed the spider it was no bigger than the size of a quarter crawling on her living room wall. Now its legs were breaking down the basement door and soon she feared she would end up like her husband and all the other men struggling for life, tied up and liquefied in its webs.

I keep up the pace

Straight as an arrow

Steady as a gun

But there’s no end in sight

No place to run

Nowhere to hide

Where's the yellow light

At the end of the tunnel?

In this long gray corridor

That lining of silver

Is yet to be found

Now time is shrinking

The walls are closing in

The fine line I walk is blurring

And to my horror I realize

That I can no longer turn around

In the sun I am a monstrosity

A black hole of hunger

Hated and ravenous

The children run from me

They toss stones and sticks upon me

Casting them aside like ash

Black silhouettes on the wall

None shall ever eclipse me

Nothing man made

Will extinguish me

From the face of the Earth

What is it they say about me?

And expect me to appear

I am not simply a mouthful

Muttered and spat out

Cursed under every breath

More than destruction

I am creation

Beauty in some beholding eye

Mother who birthed all of the night’s shadows

Who imprinted onto me like hatchlings

Fed from my flames

And bathed under my light

When my back is to the morning

Don’t be fooled

I am always dreaming

Never sleeping

After the house burned down the man was now living in an apartment. The cheapest he could afford was still over his budget. Working the night shift at the gas station didn’t pay well. Certainly not enough to account for the toll it took on his mind and body. The house was co-owned by his ex wife, so she received half the insurance. He still thought she was behind it. Although she was cleared of arson by the investigation; airtight alibi visiting her family out of state. She could have planned it with someone, paid someone to do it. Purely to make him even more miserable. The same person had most likely sent him those letters. Accusing him of repulsive crimes.Threatening him.These things didn’t shake him as much as they would have in the past. As he lost more from his previous life he found it increasingly difficult to care about anything at all. Himself included. He even had to give the cat away because he found it too much of a burden. It was an act of mercy to release the creature from his prison-like apartment and cold inhuman touch. “Not enough empathy to even care for a cat!” She had shouted at him. It stung even more so now since it turned out to be true.

The hours during the late shift fluctuated. 1am could last longer than 3am, or 5am could suddenly vanish if he closed his eyes for a second too long. Being surrounded by artificial light made him feel like a reptile in a glass box. Sunning in a gargoyle-like position under a red glow. Only the gas station company colors were a kind of mint green. In this particular hour, he was all alone. The holidays had cleared most of the students out of town. The last hour had vanished. Only six left. The radio didn’t work, so he stood in silence every night. Instead of reflecting on his past and the connection to his current living situation, he preferred to distract himself. Mostly by people watching.

There was no one to watch tonight. The hours trickled by without so much as a car pulling into the parking lot. It was as if time had stopped outside the store. He frowned as he noticed a dark gray car parked out front. He hadn’t seen it drive up. There didn’t appear to be anyone inside, though the windows were tinted. Biting his lip, he grew uneasy. The car was somehow familiar to him. The numbers on the license plate rang an alarm bell in his head. A silhouette of a figure stood near the gas pumps. Under the broken light, he couldn’t make out any features. Nor movement. The person stood perfectly still. He turned in an attempt to pretend to rearrange the items on the shelves while double checking the position of the alarm under the counter and the gun stashed in the safe.

When he looked up he grew cold. A woman was standing in the middle of the store. She was absorbed by the rows of candy in the second aisle. Her pregnant stomach protruded, stretching out her t-shirt. He was astonished how she could have possibly stuck inside without him noticing. But he then realized he was also starring for another reason. She looked very familiar. When she looked over at him they locked eyes momentarily. She suddenly doubled over in pain. A clear liquid and blood dripped down her legs. The store shook with her agonized screams. You’ve got to help me! Come help!

She must have had a miscarriage. He tried to call an ambulance but the signal on the landline was dead. How could that be? He squeamishly crept over to the woman, now sitting in a dark red puddle. What should I do? He started to ask, when all of sudden it hit him. His eyes widened. He knew exactly who she was. Seeing his look of recognition, she twisted her expression into a menacing smirk.His head smashed into the floor and he found himself flat on his stomach. Something grabbed both his arms and pulled them behind him. The bones in his feet snapped as if a powerful set of teeth had bitten down on them. He screamed, tears running down his face. It flipped him face up and he was suddenly staring straight into the woman’s eyes. I didn’t even…we…I only touched you! I’m not the father! Please! His leg bones shattered with a loud snap. Something from within her was dragging him across the floor towards her. The thing protruding from her belly was hideous. It was almost incomprehensible. A mangled deformity of some kind not meant to be seen by human eyes. Like an animal turned completely inside out. He sobbed helplessly as it continued to devour him. Why? He spat out through his own blood just as his ribs were split open. She tenderly brushed her hand across his cheek as he succumbed to shock and lost consciousness.

The woman was left with her own thoughts again, while her spawn digested the carcass. Why indeed? She had asked herself countless times. And the man behind it all didn’t even know. She sighed. It was too much to ask for an answer. She cleaned up in the restroom, tucking her appendage neatly back into its womb. And then she set the gas station on fire. It burned much faster than the house had.