i evade the death throes
of my favourite emperor as
he lies in the togas of his
ancestors. i was safer
without him but i still happy
as he drags me through the
ground. "sit down with me,"
he says without breath.
"moses predicted us meeting"
i agree and seek the shade
of a tall tree.

later, we approached
a dairy in a beach hut,
brought sixteen coconuts
exactly, and as i drunk them
all. i felt him start to nibble
my ear lobes with his canines
but i wasn't afraid,

the dirtier part of me
started to writhe like
a bad actor on their
death bed. relaxed, i tripped,
hurt my ankle, and in the
dim light he carried me.
despite my apparent
uncoordination he didn't
call me an ass, and i could
feel the oncoming SAS,
with their bright guns and
transparent bullets. but the beach
was too idyllic, and we sat in
the sand and ate oranges at half time.

the oranges were eaten up
and the shadows off the
water sparkled, and turned into
yesmen to collect our peeling skin.
the bypass started to build itself
over us, over the arable land, and
over the magenta hearts planted
on our sleeves. echos of mankind
exposed themselves as ingots of gold

in the metal chaos. they
were stuck in limbo, in the grey plaid
steel. the sky started to yodel
and i feel like i am a million
miles up a mountain the size
of egg.

i gargled his name
and started to possess
the prowess he breeds
in his bones.

i'm on fire