Kid, You Gotta be Careful
There are men who see ocean waves
as serrated knives
ebbing to slit throats. And there are those
who see potholes
pattering with raindrops
as fragile sinkholes
waiting
to chew structures
in enormous gulps. With their
chest thrown out and beards grown long; ties stapled
to their brawny necks, they
tower over kids
eating sand
squirming with
centipedes and worms. Kid,
you gotta be careful — they will have you believe
that the sun on a corpse and a swimmer shines the same; that
drowning is an act of martyrs and kings. Kid,
you gotta be careful of their cynicism, their hypnotic
delusions. Don’t capitulate to death.
For you
the heavens were created
not as a reward
but because
no other temptation
was grand enough
to unstrap you from the cross
grounding your bones.
©Copyright: Ahsan Yousaf 2020
