the moon swallowed the earth whole on a friday night / & from the sky poured stars instead of
rain / & from those stars bled fire / you didn't see the sky fall but you felt the ground shake as it cracked in two— before hope tucked you into bed and kissed your cheeks in reassurance while amber heat curled around the sunflowers beyond your window and danced along their petals / you rested deep in the oblivion of sleep
(even as the earth smelt of burning soil, fire, & flesh and lay in ruins)
with your lips sewn into a soft smile
(the wicked can rest after all! hoorah!)
while hope sat in a corner, a needle and thread in hand— and watched as man discovered that stars were burning suns and death was a cold nothing with no after to embrace
the grapefruit glow of what you thought was dawn lurks in through your blinds and picks n' plucks at your eyes / wake up! wake up and look! gaze and gaze and gaze before
all
that
red
burns out like a wick—
(before it's too late and your eyes melt from their sockets and you can't see the red anymore, only feel it cooking your skin)
wake up and look!
the red calls to you, baby
like the glamour of a siren
(or perhaps like a predator would flash you it's teeth before sinking them into your neck)
but the warm felt so good, didn't it?
warm enough to lull you back to sleep despite the blinding red
and so you let it
reasoning with yourself that there's always tomorrow
(as tomorrow set ablaze)
and as the red feasted on your bones,
hope looked down upon your ashes
and laughed
