REALMS OF REASON, INSANITY, MAGIC & MACABRE

Don't Look Back

After the Bomb M TERESA CLAYTON·SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2016 The city looked like a trash heap for as far as the eye could see. Buildings no longer stood tall and proud, announcing the names of businesses and what had once been representative of the many people who gave the better part of their lives to the success of those companies. No windows to reflect the time of day as the sun made its way from east to west and no doors to welcome customers and clients when they came to call. Bones. Just bones of city life. There were no cries for help, no screams of terror, not a sound came from this landscape. Where were the birds, the squirrels in the park in the center of this district and, as I stood there taking it all in, what district is this? There was no delineation between townships, there was no way to tell one neighborhood from the others. Bodies lie among the heap of stones, but were burned beyond recognition. I couldn't tell a child from an adult, a black man...

Standing ‘midst the shadows, ‘neath river’s birch, I remained motionless stealth but for man’s smell having found her, finally, after two days search, the woman with a story that men are afraid to tell. Long ago, when I was a wee boy, pretending to be a knight fighting off dragons and creatures unknown, my mother would take leave and come running to me,telling me to never wander off far from our home. “But, why,” I would ask her, “What lies hidden in the wood?" She remained silent, insisting I mind her every word, the warning seemed desperate, something out there was no good, it was not her words, but her fear and angst that I heard. As I grew up and became a man, I looked at the forest wall,wondering once more, as I often did, what was it beyond the trees? Next to my fire, just after sundown, I heard a familiar call. T’was the cry of the wolves, was I to fear sounds like these? Among the crickets and tree frogs calling out into the night, the wolves howling bro...

I am afraid.‭ ‬You thought I had it made, had it in the bag, had my head in a good place,‭ ‬lived without fear,‭ ‬lived without limitations,‭ ‬I am afraid.‭ ‬You thought I had it made,‭ ‬had it in the bag,‭ ‬had my head in a good place,‭ ‬lived without fear,‭ ‬lived without limitations,‭ ‬lived without hesitations,‭ ‬or so it would appear‭… ‬but still,‭ ‬I am afraid...  Nothing chases me down empty corridors,‭ ‬jumps out from behind bushes or trees. No one threatens to kill me or to bring me to my knees.  Nothing hovers o’er head and nothing to bite at my feet, no – nothing to the left or the right; nothing overhead or underfoot can give me such a fright… but still, I am afraid. I welcome the darkness as much as the light.‭ ‬I find joy in the day and peace in the night.‭ ‬I don’t worry about the now,‭ ‬because the now is no longer the now,‭ ‬anyhow and why worry about this very moment,‭ ‬this second, this tick before the tock, this easily broken lock – I am expo...