almost though not quite

in the waiting room before the abyss we take a number there is a person of indeterminate sex bellowing the rules of the place the Concierge of Quit the Gatekeeper of Gravity the Facilitator of Fate the room is white save a child’s finger painting of his future lover done 100% in red the other waiters are shoulder to shoulder ear to ear pale no matter the skin ready no matter the ride when it speaks it is suddenly a man always has been a man always fierce about his manhood angry i implied otherwise it is obvious even to old women in bifocals now he has a face like a condemned building a full-mouth grin like bulleted windows a handlebar mustache ears like plantains hair like wild crooked antennas searching for a signal there is something amiss with his waist he is a man almost though not quite he has the key to unlock abyss he has better job security than you that’s for sure he is bored calling out names he can pronounce perfectly with the correct accent we are all impressed not nervous not impetuous anymore not waiting not trying to get a better view a better spot in line he parts his ethereal gut to reveal eternity we are not impressed he is not surprised it is too much it is too complicated it is too difficult to tell what goes where or where goes what he closes his gut holds up the key grins pokes it in the lock the door opens like it was trying to all along he calls names we cross arms hug hearts almost though not quite step through the doorway ease back grin take another number think how close everything is to getting big getting small it’s all semantics how enormous everything is how forgotten how fast how impossible it is to walk through how we must be better than him how did he get this job how even the guy with the speech impediment chewing bubblegum like it’s a competition could do the job better than him how we might think our way out of this how we should have done what we pretend to do better to make the hardest only harder the harder only hard when we have nothing left we have style almost though not quite

There are 584 days remaining in Bush’s presidency.