eternity

hurricane hair
sunset eyes
dripping snout
speaking or hissing
in alien language
with familiar meaning
“would you like a drink?”

no lake of fire
but the drink burned

a man with a hollow face
screaming secrets and
painting vulgar portraits –
his subjects,
bare and bug-bitten, 
swaying as if pushed by wind
and swatting at the vermin
that ate at them

masks melting into faces
faces frozen in strange shapes
like cheap caricatures
mouthing or singing
wrong words, wrong notes

dancing without rhythm,
hardly noticing
as they turned to smoke

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