In the New Dream
I’m some horrible person
looking down on a beaten, gory man
I draw my sidearm
Another horrible man appears
reeking of eagerness
I look into this freshly emerged horrible man
I instantly hate him for his youth, for his unblemished face
I look into his resume aura
sight getting lost in an undulating labyrinth of cruel impulses meticulously documented
I offer my sidearm to this fresh beast
He says, “Hold up, boss. I got my standard procedure.”
“What’s that?” I say
He says, “I’ll kill whoever you tell me to kill, but the way I do it is this: I kill the man who hands me the gun, first. And then I blast your guy, no problem.”
“So,” I say, “you kill me, first . . . but then you kill the guy I ordered you to kill?”
“You got it.”
“Uhhh . . . what?”
“Ah, heh heh . . . no offense, but there’s an obvious workaround here.”
“This is what I get for hiring outside the firm.”
“I am a free agent, yes.”
“Oh, boy . . .”
“But like I just told you . . . there’s an obvious workaround here.”
I think, I shrug, I frustrate
He says, “You just order one of your other guys to hand me the gun.”
This fresh’n’horrible man is grinning lobe-to-lobe.
-but I don’t remember how it all came out
I’m here
awake
so clearly I did something to survive
