UNBREAKABLE

An engineer who had developed
an engine that ran on the
desire to get from here to there
was murdered in his sleep by

unidentified "corporate interests".
Those who knew the identity
of the corporate interests were
sworn to secrecy using an

unbreakable vow perfected
years earlier by a different
engineer. God, who could
have done something about

this, was busy trying to solve
the riddle of his own existence.

SLOWER

Sometimes I find
myself getting nowhere
a little too fast and
have to slow down.

Getting somewhere's not
much better. Anywhere
I am should be where
I'm happy enough

to be, but it's not
always. Someplace
else has greener
grass, or claims to.

I get back to getting
nowhere, but slower.

PHOENIX

A new and improved
version of me that
lives somewhere in
the future seems

unlikely. Life
digresses at its
own pace and
ends up at some

destination no one
had bothered to think
of. A bird rising out
of its own ashes

makes believe it's
real and flies away.

THE CLOUDS

The clouds go by,
dragging the years
behind them. There's
so much I had wanted

to tell you, but
the clouds wouldn't
let me. They went
by, and when I

asked them to
slow down, they
sped up instead.
There's so much I

had wanted to be with
you with, but the clouds.

CROOKED

A "no vacancy" sign
outside our local
cemetery leads me
to believe the future's

almost here. It was
as bound to happen,
I guess, as anything
is that hasn't

happened yet. We
try to get ready
in time, but there's
not enough room in

front of the mirror we
share. My tie's on crooked.

STONES

Stones trying hard
not to serve as
monuments to anything
seem lost in some

kind of unidentified
shuffle. They pose
for photos when
the tourists gather,

but later sleep
happily under a
blanket the night
throws over them.

One of them wakes up
looking like Abraham Lincoln.

PRE-MODERN

Sometimes I forget
how post-modern we
are and inadvertently
entertain a thought

that almost makes sense.
I immediately erase it,
of course, lest I
find myself accused

of being only modern
or (God forbid!) pre-modern.
Then I promise myself
not to do it again,

using an old promise I
know I'll have to break.