words ripped from darkness by sharpened teeth and spit like hailstones in red rain there are many victims, including the dead and wounded moments of peace even the sun will peek out from behind a cloud, deciding whether to shine on that a vampire may cage himself on a full moon night but this beast curls up in an unlocked closet, always kicked awake, red-eyed and unstoppable

until you reach it, you’ll only dream of retired life, especially after seventy I’m sure most imagine it as easy, but it has its own crosses to bear like you’ve been on the phone for hours with someone from Pakistan trying to change a password there’s a charge on your credit card that isn’t yours, but then it is, and you don’t remember what one restaurant stopped serving a dish you love and you arrived 5 minutes late and missed the ea

many worship a heavenly body, God, which is not even close to the dedication a sunflower has ever watched one grow from dawn to dusk in twisted adoration of the sun? that tall leading flower is life’s potential, it tells us who it is out loud it doesn’t hide what it will be sadly, too many live as those second and third projections along the stem, modestly budded, opening cautiously more moon flower than sunflower, they live in those darker shadows, building then tear