Nothing Happens

‘Nothing ever happens here’

I think out loud

To myself

In my head

The door bell jingles gently

playfully

Then he walks in

What world did he fall from?

Why would he have left?

To end up here

In my little now here

We smile

Shared moment of knowing

Was it my hair

Something on my face

The way I held myself?

No bother what it was

He walked up

A devil’s grin plying his lips

Playing on his features

I put away the journal

Page after page of useless words

Poetry I suppose in some circles

I

I’ll skip ahead I suppose

A date or two

Three I suppose

Counting the library

He whisks me away

His name was Into

Finnish he said

Explains his beauty

What I didn’t suspect

Didn’t want to think

Was what I actually was

To this angelic man

Every time he leaves

Every time I am alone

Nothing happens

Life stops

Or nearly seems to

When he returns

Color returns

Things happen

Life happens

When he’s gone

Nothing Happens

When he is here

I wish only that I was

Ever Here

What would you do

How would you feel

To realize

That you were nothing more

Than the supporting cast

In another person’s life?

Pinnacle

I’m so glad I took the high road

There’s so little traffic up here

Letting me look down

And hawk a loogie or two on

Those little wrong doers

I’m so much less flawed

A shining example of my species

Perfect in almost every way

Strong, and smart, and funny,

Quick

Slick, oh and humble too

From this vantage those squabbles

All seem so little and pointless

Creed?

Suffocating structure killing creatives

Morality?

Shackles slung by weak bourgeoise

I’m freed from all

Constrained by none

And so I’ll have my fun

Plans Passed ‘Round a Table

“We have ta decide!”

Michael belched

Liquor

Ill prepared and vaporous

On his breath

“Well it’s gotta be one ‘a the,”

Hastor’s hand waved a moment

“Well spoken folks…

The…

The…

Loquacious!”

She snapped her fingers as the word came to her

I smiled

Canine’s flashing as I sat forward

“I’d presume you mean to say

I should run for the position

Is that a fair assessment?”

They nodded

Slicking my hair back with a hand

I nodded also

“I think I would most definitely

Be a benefit to our company

However there is the matter

Of a certain Zeke

And his merry band of morons.”

I smirked

“If Zeke can be removed

Extricated

Maybe I’d have a real shot at it

With the way Gabriel’s head exploded

Most of the caravan is ready for war

But we know that’s bullshit,

Right?”

They nodded vigorously

“Gabriel was a mean

Sunovabitch

And his cruel ways just caught up

That man on the ridge

Didn’t work for anyone

He was out there on personal business”

I punctuated personal business

With two taps on the table

Hastor cut in

“Yeah but Zeke has everyone riled

His whole platform is

‘Protectin’ what’s ours!’

N’ all that shit”

I chuckled

“Yeah put the fear of a faceless enemy

Into the populace

And they’ll do damn near anything you want.”

Michael tapped the rim of his liquor bottle

“So… we’re gonna do what then?”

I lifted a bottle of my own onto the table

Small and full of a light brown powder

“Some nutmeg

Donated generously by the border farmers

I will be slipping this into his cocaine

Which is cut with so much filler

He won’t think twice about the color change

He’ll get sick pretty shortly

However

A few hours later

The hallucinations should kick in

On its own it would be unpleasant

But mixed with cocaine

I’d expect him to go a bit…”

Michael cut in

“-nutso?”

I sighed a nodded

“Not the verbiage I’d chose

But yes

Nutso…

I’m hoping this could undermine

All the support he’s mustered

And instead I could slip in

As the level headed

And brilliant leader…”

This is a sequel to Desert Rose Blooms. Make sure to check it out and the other poems in our hashtag AfterTheEnd, and read IamAmberley’s poem for this Tuesday too!

First Time on the Job

We army crawled

Belly to ground

Elbows for leverage

“Yeah there’s all sortsa critters

What would live under houses.”

He grunts behind me

Dragging a bag of tools

“But most are gonna run

At just the sight of a person.”

I’m huffing and groaning

Stopping to wipe my face a moment

“Possums, cats, raccoons

Y’know the sort I’m sure.”

I freeze as I see something

Illuminated before me

“What do’y suppose that is?”

I whisper as I track its length

Beam showing foot after foot

Of white

Almost luminous

Sinewy flesh

Pulsing and gyrating

Slowly

Slowly

Us

We share a bite

Splitting scratch

Drive me wild

And to the grave

We die together

And abandon the day

No light required

Between our radiance

Dominance but not possessive

Collar but no whip needed

Sweetness with a twist

Lemon and rum

And our favorite

A bit of mint

The taste of us

Shadow of the Past

A chill ran up my spine

Did someone walk across my grave?

Or…

A shadow darkens the doorway

In walks none other than

The crown prince of darkness himself

Lucifer

Though

In reality

If it were Satan, that might have been nice

No instead here is a human

Conniving and cruel

Others haven’t seen through

But I sure as hell do

I’d as soon cast you into oncoming traffic

As see your face again

So mayhap it’s best if you take leave

Before my senses do

Start of a Feud

I hear tell these mountains were dangerous before The Fall

They had a weird name that we didn’t write down

Books are just dead weight and dead words

Sounds like Apple Asians

Told you it was a weird name

Anyway, I know their dangers

The cougars

The lions

The wolves

Lots of predators now

Because cages of them were opened just after The Fall

Humans too of course

We live at the foot

The door to these mountains

But today I venture inward

To hunt for our village

Anything will do

But I hope I find deer

Slinging longbow and a pack of arrows

Water too in a doe skin jug

Enough for a few days

I say goodbye to my wife

A gentle kiss and little words

The forest swallows me almost immediately

Every inch of this place looks the same

To the untrained eye

But I know it

The curves

The drops

The switchbacks

I see paths were only underbrush looks back

A day of travel passes

Only a footnote in my mind

A brief blur of leaves and bark

The next day I find myself on a rocky outcrop

Overlooking a valley

Smoke drifts up lazily between the trees

Fire means people

I choose to avoid them

Heading down into the valley

But angling southward to steer clear

A few hours later I am perched in a tree

My garb blending me in

All vine and leaf

I am nothing

As I wait I take a sip from the jug

Tang of the hide mingling within

Better than trusting the streams out this way

Then a snap

I freeze and slowly lower the jug to my hip

Eyes scanning for movement

Slightest disturbance

Then I spot it

A stag

Antlers brazen and bold

I smile softly as I ease the bow up

Notching an arrow

Slowing my breath

The bow creaks softly as I pull back

Waiting for the moment

The exact right instant

Then a shot rings out

The stag shudders and drops in an instant

Eye obliterated

“Gottem!”

A cry to my north

I ease the arrow back

Pressing into the bark around me

Three figures descend

Hollering in excitement

Bedraggled in rough sewn hides

I consider my options

Travel for another kill

Maybe days

As that shot will have scared off all others for miles

Or

I tighten my grip on my bow

“A biggun’!”

I pull back the arrow

Aim for the side of his face

A soft thwip and the arrow finds its mark

Causing him to spin around

To stop them from knowing where it came from

“What in hell?!”

I notch the second arrow quicker

Deep breath

Release

The second

Biggest of the three

Drops without a struggle

The final one aims a rifle wildly

Old and muzzle loading

We had a few

But rarely used them

The gunpowder too valuable to waste on a single animal

“You think you can attack the Kilkenny’s?!?”

I notch the next arrow

Just as our eyes meet

My face, grim determination

His, confusion

His shot fires wide

A tree to my right cracking

I release the final arrow and he clutches at it

Blood trickling around it

He yanks it free

Mistake

Blood gushes for a few seconds

And he collapses

Dead

I’ll dress my kill

Construct a simple sled for the meat

And take what goods they have

I probably have a few hours before more come looking

I’ll be gone long before they find this scene

If you want to read more from this world go check out Amberley’s poem for this Thursday! Also check out the tag “After the End” to see all current poems written for this project.