At World's End

Watch.

letters fall from the sky, 

                                       b

                                            r

                                                 ok

                                                         e

                                                               n,

                                                                        unthreaded, stringy

words break apart in the middle, incomplete, incoherent, s p l i n t e r e d

Watch.

a gaping

maw.

black, hellish, pitch

consumes, tears, desecrates

strikes a chord of fear

Listen.

thrumming undetected, distinctive, muddled, ringing

roaring, hissing, building, sudden, deafening, inaudible

pounds one too many times

Feel.

reaches inside, mashes spindly fingers through the brain

plunders, assaults, violates

spreads the two hemispheres apart and thrusts

once,

twice.

Not enough–never enough.

feeds on itself, multiplies, never-ending menacing ruin

oozes undetected, visible, unsuspected

Once you submit, you are a slave.

Once you succumb, you are over.

*Scholastic Poetry Silver Key