the book

by samantha monday sternwall

everybody has a book being written inside their head and no one will ever read it not even when they are dead in the book is the story of everyone who will ever live and die and if you could only read one page you would sit right down and cry everybody has a story that only they can tell and it all gets written down in a book a book that will never sell everybody is a dragon a dragon they slay themselves everybody is a wizard with a book of spells on their shelf everybody is a princess leading the hero to his doom everybody is an evil queen plotting in a dark-draped room everybody is friar tuck hoisting a tankard of ale everybody is guinevere so beautiful and pale everybody is blackbeard's cat watching the wind fill the sails everybody is a bulldog wagging its stumpy tail everybody is tarzan swinging in the trees everybody is sherlock holmes watchng his bees in the breeze everybody is robin hood hiding in the woods everybody is long john silver bringing home the goods everybody is cleopatra floating down the nile everybody is oscar wilde stepping out in style everybody is jesse james shot in the back so sad everybody is salome born to be bad everybody is samson trying so hard to do right everybody is delilah whispering good night everyone is dracula taking what he can get everybody is lucy who can never forget everyone is medusa's child slowly turning to stone everybody is a monster walking the world alone

down the last road

the mysteries of this world add up sum to sum to sum and yet there are depths, and depths and depths no human should ever plumb every grain of sand is a riddle laughed at by the beach every star is a laughing sage with nothing to teach every street has no beginning every road has no end every sunset has a message that it will never send there is a light in every window that goes out as you draw near there is promise in every smile that dissolves in desperate fear the beautiful people beckoned but only in your dreams now the streets are all deserted as rain in the gutter streams no cat or dog or police car as far as you can see or even a fellow drunkard for pathetic cameraderie the party goers have all gone home vanished without a trace there is a picture pasted on the lamp post "wanted" - of your own face