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I’m shrinking!
- the incredible shrinking man
five centimeters less in height
than I was five years ago
The hilly countries of my muscles
are slowly collapsing into
sorrowful wind-rippled deserts
Forgotten names and descriptions
murmur tauntingly like underground
rivers, as a trio of black crows
caw mocking from their telephone wire perches
we told you so, didn’t we
Yet somehow, the old emotional ghosts
eternal, ever present despite their age
still slither and slide in their cages like snakes
they need only occasional sips of blood or bile
and here and there an imagined insult
an unsuspecting glimpse over my shoulder
to stay alive. They whip tails, expose fangs
always poised to strike
I know they are part of my geography
and may only be banished from the earth
when I myself become a desert
my diminishing height, memories, concerns
and fears drying up and blowing away
in the uncaring wind
© Johnmichael Simon
2017
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