(2004)
It’s 12:09 and he clicks for another time
I think that’s 6 but I’ve been blocking it out
As much as I can in this place
Where all you are left with is nothing but time to contemplate
It’s friend the green creature
Gripped to my thigh on my walk in
A willing fight to remove him
For me the battle a win
Once upon the floor no movement or crawl
Just sits behind me leering up
From the purpley-grey carpet soaked in stains
Mocking at the way I keep checking his position
Careful not to crush his tapping frame
This piercing precious glance fixed upon my back
The click telling me someone will return to the earth
Not much of a warning only minutes before can it be heard
Is this little green creature here to take me
Will he swallow me whole with the opening of his insect jaws
Am I the next in line to escape physical walls
12:20 no more has been
I know it’s Monday beetle leave me be
Either I am deaf or the torturing creature has quit
As I drink from a yellow mug
Once more I check and a surprised look
For now I see the green creature’s life ceased
Was I supposed to help, maybe the beetle had another message for me
My own ego has left this creature to die
It will haunt my desk and it’s corpse eaten by dust mites
But that’s not where the deathwatch ends
It only ends when it ends
The stinging devil flies to me on Tuesday
Flickering his translucent wings
As more screens flicker pointless data
Landing on the fake grey marble surface of this desk
There no more than a few seconds but staying just long enough
He knew I’d remember his gentle hum
Buzzing he is the wind’s sound
The earth and air have now approached me
Wednesday and the fire ant floats over
He will take me chunk by chunk down the built tunnels
The earth is warmer and keeps growing
I am now 9 thousand pieces as I race to the earth’s core
Lava blisters my disfigured flesh
In a deep cavern he rebuilds me
But builds me better than before
Now I have pyro
Fire burns only through my veins
No longer melts this flesh and chars the bone
I am born through the volcano and slowly cool in the sea alone
As I drift with the tide
Travel with the jet stream
The last day is on its way now I am much relieved
My fragmented spine stiffening like the board
Like the plastic chair I am worn and torn
The black-cloaked man comes to take my insubstantial heart
Swinging sickle, reap and scar