Poetry: "The Road: The World."

Submission to a Contest.

The Road: The World.

When you want to go all the way
to the store, but you haven't the time,
step back to the house and pray.
When the light opens up,

and you walk back around to the door,
you will know that the cat wasn't waiting for you
by how it darts from behind the bush
and eats the mouse before you can get it.

Seven days before the end of the world
you found God in a trash can by the end
of the street, and you stopped before
the song ended and pulled out the cords.

The second one, in your brain, was
attached to your heart and your gut,
and now the sparks are burning God's face. Turn
that fucking shit off, he says. You turn it.

Now tell me your name, he says. You tell him.
You tell it. Are you a man or a woman? you ask.
He says neither and pulls the lid over him,
and goes rolling down the hill, faster than you can catch,

so you run and start, you start to
get up, catch up to him, and you won't catch him, now,
because he's taken the cat and now you don't know if it's
alive or dead, with God. And at the bottom of the hill,

your whole life spills out with all the garbage,
and someone walks by and tells you, "If you don't
clean that shit up, you're going to jail."
Just don’t let zombies eat your brain radio.