“consumption”, a poem featured in the anthology poetry series, “Quilted Whispers” by Eber & Wein Publishing  (2023)

a place your mouth on the world and eat

unhinge your jaw and crunch on leaves

taste the remains of what used to be living

devour the chess board and you’ll be winning

absorb your grandparents and wear the mask like clothes

you’ll inherit their mannerisms and everything they know

skin your parents dry like wrinkled leather

for what better coat to defeat the weather?

huff the fumes of your little petrol automobile

while it leaks of groans glowing green as it turns wheel

chew the hard limb in your mouth to replicate what’s on-screen

i’m sure drinking liquid tar is going to give you meaning

lick the sugared walls right beside your door

for there’s a starvation in you with no cure

buy and sell and market and profit off of lies

watch as everyone around you begins to die

pissing on the priest won’t do any good

but talking to hallucinations will keep you secure

blue babies are smoking cigarettes but won’t be condemned

there’s three dead whores but no one cares who killed them

and if you’re lost an archaic book can show you the way up

but in that journey you’ll get addicted to poppyseed syrup

there’s few rules to the ground where we build our own tombs

so long as remember that you won’t survive if you don’t consume

The poem, written in 2022, was meant to be a metaphorical look into modern issues.