"This is the way" he says
Stepping out of the shadows.
"If you want it, name your price."
You look at the proffered ticket
He holds before you.
"Everybody wants to get in. Just tell me what
You're willing to pay."
As you ponder, wanting the ticket,
A man steps in front
And hands over a wad of cash.
Grasping the solitary ticket,
He runs to the gate
As you feel the heaviness of regret.
"This is counterfeit," you hear a voice shout,
"Access denied!"
You turn to find the seller
But see only a dark space
Where he had stood.

What is the shrill high-pitched alarm
That affronts the plugged ears
But the insistent sound of reality?
What is the hammer blow
That crushes the armor of bones
But the relentless force of reality?
What is the shock that sits
You upright in the middle of the night
But the jolt of reality breaking through your slumber
And making Reality known?
Evade and distract as you will—it is there.

There is a creature of festering hate
Locked undeground in an iron cage
That if an escape it could create
Would shatter the world with shaking hate
Engorged with a surfeit of empty smiles
And shameless coy deception
It waits with mounting bitter bile
To end its cruel frustration

Accosted in the house of prayer--
A beggar puts forth his hand
“I need money,” he says in your language
Speaking with a contorted mouth
His face otherwise blank, including his eyes
His hand makes grasping motions in the air
Like a claw
“I will pray for you,” he says
His face getting closer
“I will pray for you”
When you give him some coins
He looks at them and continues
“I need money,” he says
With a bent mouth
“I will pray for you”

In the haze of the autumn afternoon
You wander the streets
Until you pass the zoological garden
The sun makes you sweat under your coat
As you watch the crowds gaping
At monkeys and tigers
You enter a dark hall
Leading to the aquarium
And walk past schools of fish
And darting sharks
Until you stop before a window
Where, in a vast pool of water,
A walrus descends upside down
And presses himself to the glass,
Staring at you