Hi, how’re you? My smile tells the room while still wearing my nightly lover’s perfume. The fog in my mind talks to the smoke from my breath. I hope I find death faster than a child gets Ritalin. I wanna see without sight and hear without noise. Just like air, I am just there. I say this to the wrong crowd, and signs painted in red letters spell out “Beware.” Beware that you speak like a deranged man. Obsession over all things material, I must declare, but not before my sacrifice to my inner being lies bare. Sex, violence, and greed— all topical unless we speak of who or what pulls the strings. Why can’t the birds sing? If you see me swimming out way past the shore, know I am giving my heart to a time before. I’ll drown while still wondering who I gave it all for. Oh, I forgot about hope— hope will make me float back from the ocean floor. I’ll come back like a new man, unrecognizable. Then I can spit fresh sea salt from my lips and lift the pompas from false decadence. The salt burns truth in their royal wounds. Is the apocalypse soon? Was that an idea we all share because a long-haired hippie told us the sun likes to cry when we listen to snakes speak? For goodness’ sake— if it were a lamb, everything would still be great. Now we all beg for bread behind golden gates. Thanks, Peter, always looking out for us, still in line. Surely heaven’s filing system doesn’t take way too much time. I bow out. I’ll go sit on the side: heaven’s bench warmer and designated performer.