2015-2016, Poem

Midnight Express

Featured in the 2016 Spring Issue of Rambunctious

Midnight Express
Willa Shiomos, '17

1.
survival of not the fittest, 
but the least apt to break 
flesh will not give in to
rushing dirt and scars of water 
drowning legs against currents
of fish and creatures more fit than human 
thinking kills thinking
as they cannot feel their head dying slow

2.
Here in buildings of light
they are within each eye 
illuminating through thoughts
bouncing off each other like pinballs
inside until they burst out of the game
Higher up they are locked in a thick skin
yet underground they flow freely
like the network of movement they are parallel to

3.
to his paper he asks
how can i manufacture longing
repeat to myself one emotion - an emotion of fabrication?
make up a lie so you can with her?
the paper will not tell him
the words alone are not his, but the paper is unique all together 
overlapping with others
but not fully synonymous