Pterodactyl

I feel like I’m tending

an anorectic flame

in memory of myself

this wavering will

to live.

Everything threatens it.

Even joy.

The shark moves flat as a coffin on autopilot through the seas of your dreams.

It’s loaded

with bombs that could wipe out

all the life on earth ten times over

but it’s looking for you alone.

How do we just sit there

eating cereal in the morning?

How do we stand so patiently in line

at the DMV?

If this were a horror movie

we'd run for the exit 
ready to lose our lunch.

If this were a love story

it would be the saddest ever told.

Why aren’t we screaming?
Why aren’t we screaming all the time?

Every time you draw that feeling out of me

I stand off to the side amazed

and watch it thunder passed

like a train with a thousand cars

loaded with god-only-knows-what

blowing me backward from the tracks.

Stand there, speechless,

staring in awe in the direction

of the tunnel

into the darkness stretching backward

farther than any eye can see.