All the Dreams (2023)

All the dreams you had for other people

Are coming true for you, today:

Sat neatly against a white background,

like a word printed for the first time

you experience Nothingness

and its peace, like stale public air

in the back of a Crown Victoria

or behind a locked aluminum door.

from snitched pulpit, watching

them all spin to self-wished

future emblazoned

with bitten tongues on fire,

you wonder with anxious burden

what you have, in ignorance,

stolen in the high-viz night,

and the things which you

can't give back,

as It All is now a burnt emblem 

of necessary shame.

An ongoing travesty—