The Bargain

Entering the room of unknown proportions

Expanding, 

Contracting

This must be the lungs of the city. 

The coughing is the worst,

Collapsing,

Crashing, 

Upon our makeshift casino tables.

Smoke and ash, and embers

Tentatively light the floor

Let them burn as show lights.

Adjust accordingly.

Adjust the accordion to the corner

Without the crushed bookshelf.

The hallmarks of civilization 

Writings of illustrious praise, 

Will rest unknown within our time. 

Is this where it begins? 

The smell of burning skin is parallel to my senses

The man is asleep

No one will wake him.

He understood the bargain 

once he crossed the threshold. 

This will remain a story within his lineage for multiple generations. 

The night he righted the ship. 

The night he found god.

The night he lay lifeless in the ever collapsing building I call home.

Only to return, superhuman in mind, 

surely human in form.

Serenity exudes from those who exit these cell walls. 

Filling the gaps left from the lurking anxieties 

In the dampest cellar of the mind, 

Departing at the entrance.

Michael Carney