8.12.24

Your Host, by John Grey

Amusing myself:

an art, like everything else.

Ash, ash —

falling on me –

beware the big striptease,

the Nazi lampshade,

cake of soap,

the cat who takes nine times to die.

Do I terrify?

Does it feel like hell in here?

Or, worse than that, real?

Whatever – I do it exceptionally well.

And I’ve done again.

This long time dying.

Breathing air.

            (The first time it happened

            I really did surprise myself)

So what’s it to be?

            A word or a touch?

No charge.

I’ll even throw in the beating of my heart.

The glint of a gold filling.

Where’s the scare in that?

The great concern?

Give me a call.

I’m not God. But not Lucifer either.

            I’m something in between.

            A man of leisure.

            I might even be dead.