Johnston Atoll

"I have tried not to know"

he said, putting the book down,

bombing the life out of the ocean,

tipping barrels and barrels into the dark

and weaving dissatisfied to the outsized plastic bin, filled with melting ice and a random assortment of beers.

"what the larger game entailed"

fishing one, label-less to his mouth

"you wan...?"

he asks

"oh forget it, never mind, I suppose you're technically still working eh?"

Flipping the coin

"Don't you wanna ask me anything? I don't mind. Really"

The farthest torches are sputtering out and the waves seem to be growing louder

Boom

"yeah, well, I'm not really surprised anymore, no one wants to know what I think. I'm not sure they ever did to be honest, not really"

The circle of darkness contracting around us

BOOM

"For what it's worth, I don't think it matters what shirt you wear"

BOOM

"Yes I think I'll be fine here after all"

BOOM

"Go on then, I'm ready"

BOOM

impermanence

The poet of Savage and Slaughter

This is an interior sound and it will not travel

It is only for you

Don't you remember?

Before severity won its war upon your face

and the hotel corridors beckoned

From where the party girls ran past you, wrapping curtains round themselves and singing “tell me the time” 

From where the shadow circled you like perfume, swooping in to brush your neck

The whisper of a new life.

And in the time it had taken for the night to become morning you had made the decision and taken the first steps

 

Out of the front door and down the gravel drive-way

Feeling refreshed by the misty rain as you ducked into the passenger seat

Happy and excited, the whispered promise exploding all around you 

a mirror to the breaking dawn

Pacify the Abrahamic Sects