[poem] Creatures That Feed

Creatures that feed

There are Creatures that feed on everything,

the whole universe is alive with them.

Creatures that feed on loneliness, on silence

Creatures that feed on the spaces between words, and on your train of thought

Denizens of the abyss that feed on closeness, quiet lurkers who feed on the forces that fling us apart

Creatures that feed on ideas, your best ones lost to interruption

Beings that eat love, bloom like dry rot into exquisite patterns of resentment

A fungus that feeds on the realism of a memory, rendering doubt like fat from the lining of a reverie

Monsters that eat hope, freedom, a sense of belonging-

they coexist in a habitat which harbors a moss that, when burned, gives off vengeance.

This moss grows everywhere. It is an invasive species.

These are just pests, you see- outside the walled gardens of the land of literature.

Here we cultivate creatures that feed on protocols- tongues darting out when a delicious breach is detected

These morsels taste like superiority- creamy and perfect.

There are spores that land on intentions- the longer they grow, the more selfish your intentions become;

A whole ecosystem feeds on these spores- gardening their unseemliness.

A colony of past-eroding bacterium, balanced against a yeasty condemnation of the morality of yesterday.

Towering above these ecosystems, on a different order of magnitude:

Erudite pillars, a canopy of hope- between which sings, soars the voices and wings of joy.

Great plains of love, waving in the winds of change- and reflective pools of forgiveness.

May 5 2019