No Thanks

You can keep all the golden scales that
fall off the back of the dragon you’re chasing.
I don’t want to spend my time
sharpening spears and arrows without
being able to use them myself. It’s easy to
sit across from me at a table and say I’m
not doing the right thing, but I won’t listen
while I sketch an obscure landscape with
a needle into a purple eraser.
There is no right thing to do anyway. Have
you not noticed that the flies eat
anything that’s dead? They do not scold
each other because some succumb to
rancid cattle with exposed skulls. The
people get together at their bowling alleys
and dinner parties to check each other’s
progress. Which milestone have you broken
over your head this year? What’s your plan
for the next? Meanwhile magma churns in
convection currents beneath the Earth’s
crust. A machine crushes the skull of a
factory worker. A giant chunk of iron rolls
through space catching bits of dead stars
as it goes.