craigalish.com

just give up
now
the missing chopstick
will never
be found

though you might
search through all the hells
for it

the hell of burning oil
the hell of flayed skin
the hell of suicides
gnarled wooden prisons in mockery of life
the pitch soup of corrupt magistrates,
after all
try all the usual ones
first

the hell of strangers smiles
that you think are about you

the hell of people that tenderly
take your hand
and lead you into cruel traps

the hell of outstanding apologies
stacked and teetering like weapon stockpiles
destined to find a battlefield

the hell of schoolyard
friends lined up
cursing and spitting on you
and all the bleak truth of their secret judgements

fire and fireworks
and smoking fires
and the howling of pet dogs
and cats mewing prophecies
of armageddon
while hiding from the rumble

flies and fleas in swarms
swarms of stinging insects
that multiply as they are squashed
larvae squirted out in swarms, bursting through
the paste of
squashed ancestors

the hell of floating inches
above salvation
bobbing in the air
as it slips ever
fractionally out of reach

the hell of discarded newborns
cast off a bridge
drowning
in bound sacks
once used for potatoes,
their cries drowning

the hell of those in power
being the best at hiding
who is in power

noses in shapes
that don’t flatter faces
and faces
that mask treachery

of children dying
with no time left to be healed
from that which is easily healed

the hell of those seeking
change
floured and rolled in a batter
of indolence
fried in the blood
of failed dictators
cursed blood spilled as they were
slaughtered by those
most trusted

the hell of art
that will never be understood
art
that holds a purity
that no heart will hold

the hell of purity
only used as a weakness
and peace being only a weakness
and mercy only a weakness
kindness a weakness
and honor as
a deception — written in the records
of those that murder the peaceful
and the pure of mind

the hell, finally
of starvation
seated at pandaemonium’s banquet hall
starved
with only one chopstick
never able to match a pair
having searched in abodes
meant only for torture
for a simple slice of wood
a bow of bone
a pair