SUSTENANCE

your name will be called


but all you'll hear is a shrieking of birds

or a low feline rumbling

or a serpentine hissing

from beneath a fern


and the city you thought

some earthly paradise

will revert to its basic elements

and marmots will lose your luggage


and your meeting will be a gathering

of pigs around a trough

munching and slurping and smacking

the next piglet to be sacrificed for the lions on top


oh these cliches are as trite as they are true

and since no one gets it

another prey falls to a predator

while some insects camouflage themselves


to look like the sticks of furniture they occupy

and either you'll live to squeal the tale or no longer be

anything for any purpose but somehow some way at some time

your name will be called like the belch of an alpha asshole


and you won't even have time to think "what was that?"







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.