Daniel, you said you were Daniel. And I believed you. Can you blame me? Anyone with Cat’s Eye Apatite for eyes and grace water would envy must be favored by God. No one could touch you… Certainly a divine force was swooning over you just as I was. I didn’t for a moment consider that the distant reverence the rest of the world maintained might be because they were wise, or at least smart enough to be scared. You made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, but I thought it was because there was an electricity to us.
Watching (though not hearing) you pad around my kitchen, I knew you didn’t belong here. I wanted to give you the world, but from between my ribs where you couldn’t get it for yourself. No one would dare withhold anything from you, even a planet and all of its life and beauty- so I would have to keep you behind bone bars to be able to offer you anything. Oh, and how I wanted to give you everything.
But there wasn’t enough room in my ribcage for you to live, I knew this. So instead of caging you, I gave you a key. You could choose to come and go in my chest as you pleased.
I should have known.
You can’t give wild animals the key to your heart; they’ll just eat the whole thing.
Leo, you are Leo. And you would have eaten Daniel’s heart out if God hadn’t held your mouth shut. Me, on the other hand—I’m not a blessed servant of a mighty cosmic force that can hold jaws shut. I wanted you in my ribcage, and you cleared it out nicely.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
while i feel very much like this isn't as strong as some of your other work, i do love some of the imagery and the direction it's taking.
ReplyDeletei would suggest that you not give up on this piece, and instead just see what you can build it into.