Lines

Capstone

I heard noises in the attic

For a few weeks

Enough to make me unable

to sleep

One day I decided to check

On the strange clicks and clacks

That kept me awake at night

just one check

And when I got to the attic

When I finally found the source

I had a little laugh indeed

a little laugh

Jubilations and exaltations

At my expense you see

It all surmounted so easily

blood and bone

My attic was smothered in a thick

And heavy syrup, a coating

Of finest life's vintage you see

the smell

I saw in the corner of that place

In the tiny alcove of boards and boxes

A tiny little thing now, after all

the fun

As I looked upon it, like a roach

It detected my vision

And looked up to greet me

"hello"

My skin crawled from the stench

And the words felt so hollow

But still I answered back meekly

"hi"

"Sometimes I come up here to think"

"But they followed me here"

"They never quite get it"

he said

I nodded along and listened

My words would not come

I could not speak there

only sit

"There was this boy and a dog"

"They're battered and broken"

"Somewhere over there I think"

I shuddered

"Why did you attack them?" I asked

"They wouldn't let me think, they won't"

"Let me do anything"

he turned

Now looking at me fully, I saw his face

So smooth, without a flaw

Like a bug, or a roach indeed

and pale

"What's your name, friend?" I asked again

"I have no name, sir"

"Nonsense, we all have a name" I insisted

he stood

I rose with him and towered over the thing

So small and yet the scene around me

Showed me I could not discount him

his nails

Caked in red and rust, gunk and goo

A paste of coagulated deed

Centered upon the focal points of his limbs

sharp too

"What do you want?" he asked

"Just a name, boy" I repeated

"My name is your name" he answered

eyes crossed

"Your name is my own?" I asked

He clarified with a nod

And it was then I properly saw his face

a mirror

His flesh formed to be like mine

His face mirrored mine like a mimic

Or a doppelganger that reeked of death

stumbled back

"Why are you here, son?" I stammered out

"I'm you, you're thus a father of sorts"

I simply shook my head in disbelief

eyes wandered

To take in the scene around me

Did I create this just by existing here?

Nonsense, such words were foolish

I charged

I grabbed him by the throat and slammed him

Above, against the wall behind him

And demanded he give me more

he grinned

His face now felt sickly, as it shifted

Bubbling flesh formed more vividly

The countenance of my own

he's me

I dropped him and despaired

To gaze upon one's own form

And yet not inside a mirror or water

an angel?

Nay, an angel does not destroy

So vapidly like him, a demon?

Nay, this feels more sinister

with intent

Seeing the path lay out for me

I started cutting him down

I ripped him apart with my bare hands

rancid air

Filled my lungs with panted breaths

He became a pile of mass like the others

I barely even noticed the dog

until it barked

The noise and the smell must have drawn it

I forgot to close my front door perhaps

It went to make a move

gutted it too

Now my deeds began to weigh upon me

And I collapsed in a heap of similar arrangement

In that alcove, a tiny shriveled me

rumbling below

Alas, the circle closed in, and I understood

I saw myself rising up from the stairs below

My former self still whole

and me the roach

I looked feebly at it, at me

And smiled a grin so very wide

And I began to laugh so wildly

laughed and laughed

and laughed

and laughed