Kairosclerosis ✔ [poetry]

extermination

14

EXTERMINATION

⸻

keep your curtains drawn,

your eyes close.

burrow deep underneath the blanket.

stay quiet.

so you will be left alone.

the houses around you have been burning for long

the screams won't stop and the corpses

won't die.

you haven't seen another person since last dawn.

you hear the bells and guns,

all day long.

it's your personal anthem,

your funeral song.

playing on loop as you

keep moving along.

you hear them down the street,

they are going door-to-door, they haven't skipped one.

they have a list and they are going down on it

burning, looting, murdering.

they are going for your house

and they are going for your head.

but don't open your eyes.

all is fine.

the tears on your lashes aren't yours.

it's just a bad dream, after all.

keep your head down and kneel in support.

carry the torch and you will be spared.

one-by-one,

your home is the only one left.

they found you on the floor,

and they beat you black and blue

even though you are them and they are you,

they wouldn't hurt themselves nor you.

oh, now you know that isn't true.

the tiles are cold.

your blood flows, warm and slow.

good for you.

it's the least you could do.

Part of the problem,

Part of the system.

part of the oppressive

mechanism.

privileged and elitists—death to you all.

eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

friends, now foe.

the coup begins

and ends with you.