HURTING
I’VE WALKED FOR MILES MY FEET ARE HURTING
Running down a narrow path black night freezing cold
Snow I know it’s dangerous +check over my shoulder
periodically No boogieman after me Silly
Path leads to door inside is a slot in the floor where the
top of a ferris wheel pokes through You can either take a
seat or stay in the closet like space Believe me I check
carefully for alternate exits
The only other one is the way I came Dark path black ice
remember? But I am not good with heights so I linger in the
closet +ponder my fate I notice that the wheel is powered by
huge elephants who are hosed down mercifully
Otherwise they walk in slow circles methodically Does this scene
remind you of anything? Is the black icy path the birth canal? The
ferris wheel the wheel of life? The elephants we humans chained
for eternity?
Wait a second! I notice an area adjacent to the closet like cell There is
a guy +a girl youngish who are gatekeepers of a sort Gods? Parents?
The he tells me as he slides a needle into my arm that the drug called
____ will make it easier + I will now be able to handle the job of the
elephant
I will be the power behind the ever turning wheel! Does this make me feel
better? More in control? I will be a giant beast of burden with huge ears
+a trunk I can crush the evil-antlike humans at will And wait I think he
said the drug even takes the burden out of being a beast Yes Please
I get it When you are born you go to sleep forget all of the wild in your
being Then life the drug the dopamine becomes addicting +you sell your
real-estate to get onto the wheel Why it’s only a carnival ride!
Much later when your old elephant bones are weary they spray you with
cool water + it’s glorious You even begin to love a little being a beast
The very one who powers the goddamned machine!
Now sitting in a cafe mid-summer’s day A girl with tanned bouncing breasts
glides by ball cap iPad wicked grin The breeze is heavenly I’ll have some
more of that needle Please
__
In memory of Elie Wiesel Jew #A-7713 who walked the wheel in Buchenwald
and later Auschwitz until age 16 when in April 1945 he was liberated
__
Summer 2016
