the service was full of people i've never seen. misshapen faces quivering with grief and fear. they have seen the mighty fall and the meek congregating.
i swallowed a pill that cleared my head.
i see your point. i see your pointless point. you are cliched and unimaginative...spread out and crumpled like cheap sheets...stains on your back visible to strangers...hidden from us...hidden like easter eggs.
your sorry tattoos leave a mark of shame. a shame we share. a shame i inherited from my father but entirely new to you.
your fingernails are stained forever...fingernails chipped and broken and regrown and chipped and broken.
(yelled) PAINT YOUR FACE ON THE MIRROR!!
(quietly) paint your face as it is today, because it is as i will always see you.
(yelled) WE WILL TRIUMPH OVER YOU!! WE WILL WAKE YOU FROM YOUR SLEEP!! WE WILL KNOCK PICTURES FROM THE WALL!! WE WALK STEPS AHEAD BECAUSE WE KNOW WHERE YOU'VE BEEN AND WE KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING!!
(whispered) your voice is tired. it crackles and quivers like manipulated tape.

and that's who succeeds in this world.
the rapists.
the child rapists.
men with no morals.
men with bricks in their hands.
men who initialize their first names.
men who never think (men who never think).
liars and thieves!
liars and thieves!

but the men who jump from tall buildings never bounce more than once.
because if they bounce more than once, well....
they never jumped.