Gotterdamerung; the world will end in fire
from an ultra-light GPC cigarette
flung sparking from a broken car window—
something too petty for any connection to God.

I will be pushing a shopping-cart with blue cracked
plastic handlebars through Wal-Mart,
digging through my clutch for a pacifier,
walloping an open-lunged child and counting to ten.

Dented cans of Best Yet mushroom soup will bounce from shelves.
Life will not pass before my eyes, only
cartoon scrims of turtles, singing
‘Duck….and cover.’

I forget to remember fucking.
I forget to remember my lover, child, name.
Chaos, Hollywood style—
I forget to pray.

Steel fixtures domino for aisles; neon splashes, polyester burns;
the last thing I see is a high-school hallucination
of the world curdling in tidal waves
of green and golden cream.

¶ 10:08 PM