Divine Wreckage
Rebecca Raskin
I watched the news for the first time in weeks.
of grease. I have stopped eating. I can feel
Then I ripped up all my poetry. I set it on
my stomach acid corrode my insides. I am
fire and tossed the ashes out the window,
pure. I am cleaner than you. Cleanliness is
watching as the wet air carried them to a
next to godliness. I have begun to bathe in
new home. Adoption, but more efficient.
ammonia. Sometimes I brush my teeth with Clorox. Make the choppers nice and shiny.
A butterfly caught fire. It flew too close to one
I am going to eat your heart when I finally
of the tiny tea lamp candles that rest on the
stop fasting.
dining room table. Spread erratically among yellowing papers and books with footnotes
I have made a list of everything I am sick
that don’t actually have any meaning. The
of reading about. Love is the first through
butterfly went from solid to ashes to dust
fifth item on the list. Dating is for those who
in the wind created by the fan in under 3.5
aren’t comfortable with silence. Thank you
seconds. I gathered as much of the leftovers
very much, I like it right here. In my mess.
as I could and buried it in your orchids. I hope
My mess coagulates around me; it is nice
you don’t mind. They were dying anyway,
and safe as long as you don’t poke yourself
and dead things belong with dead things.
with any of the rusty saws I like to keep in
This is all so the living can move on.
between the couch cushions. We do not give free tetanus shots. Go find a country with
I have spent the last three hours lying on
Medicare and leave me alone.
the floor, staring at the ceiling. Solace will not be offered to those with clean criminal
I have evicted the cockroaches from my
records. Blood, blood everywhere and not
bathroom with two gallons of Clorox and a
a drop to drink. Oh woe is me; we are all
bottle of Raid. Who said mixing chemicals
just one huge Shakespearean tragedy. I will
was a bad thing?
spend half my life not making sense anyway, why start now? Sjnfcj. We’re all going to die of heart clots. There is nothing healthy on TV and even the air is full
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