Someone please kill me
before I explode
into over 7 billion pieces of glass
and scatter over all the places anyone has ever deemed a landmark,
for someone to discover me
or mindlessly stumble over me
as they stare up at some soulless, unforgiving structure
that seems sturdy and eternal
but will one day return to the dust
that all things return to when faced
with the ever-reaching claws of time
If they stumble,
their feet will snag on my edges
and bleed over the ruins,
or perhaps someone will pick me up,
shrug,
and cast me away again
on the assumption that I am simply a piece of something
broken and long-forgotten,
or maybe the sunlight will bounce off of me
at just the right angle
and I will gleam in a child’s eye
and their unconscious attraction to ordinary things
with no place in the world
will draw them to me
and they will pocket me to add to their collection
of things they found to have uncategorizable beauty
in a world constantly flooring the gas pedal of the fastest car
to meet the loving embrace of death
while declaring victory or success
or some other kind of fulfillment
and I will gather dust in a drawer
alongside rocks and pebbles
and small shells
and pieces of lost pottery with chipping paint
until everything rots
-Jeremiah Zaeske