an inhalation…

vermin swinging from the rungs of my ribcage. salting my lungs as if they were slugs waiting to curl up or be stomped on. in the spotlight of humanity’s disgust,

i stare upward in pinches of pain.

curtains fall over my eyes, tickling them like loose eyelashes. and you can see the light trying desperately to tear them open like the sun burning eyelids, causing them to turn red on the inside. i can feel the skin at the corner of my eyes wrinkling in reaction, flooding with tears excreting the saline that has built up in my body.

smoke billowing out of towers can be seen from my window, and i dare not open it.

it’s the holy spirit reclaiming the first born, extending itself forward like a serpent coiling over itself. charging with reproach, i see the souls it has soaked up fading away.