about everything

1.
step ahead one small pace after another one pacing the tempers of those around pacing slowly in a line so long there's no end to be seen while waiting to be filed like prepackaged produce on a ship headed for promise that smells a lot like dirt and oxidation of metals mined by those who went before to dig holes in the ground for dreams to be poured over with concrete and plaster and wood and memories of the places left behind.

2.
regret.

3.
panic sets in when a message goes without reply to for too long and without excuses so what to say to make it okay when it's still okay with the original sender but the delayed replier doesn't want the wrong message unspoken to go understood so the reply is "I love you" even though it doesn't make sense to do so then and there but it happened and it's out now.

4.
anxiety.

5.
drink dirty water to ease the horror and tangles of threads of pain in the gut in the center of the dessert laden with purple flowers poison to many but beautiful to all at the lip of every cactus beckoning to be touched and tasted to leave a victim at its trunk so it can drink the blood like a spider through its needles to survive as a human animal tries to survive too with a nearly empty jug and no sense of direction.

6.
peace.