death
when he was a child, a little boy, he
would walk through the living room
over and over again
he would see the book on the shelf
a science book, a volume
from a set: a book about
how the world works
once he looked though the pages
found a drawing about the life
of planet earth, how it was
formed, how eventually the
temperature would rise, all life
on earth would eventually die
and reading that it was
millions of years away didn’t help
with the fear, the instant panic:
so he took the book, hid the
one volume from the rest,
so he wouldn’t have to see it
when he walked through his
own living room