fog

The fog devours the world today,
Gray and voracious,
Like a swarm of mosquitoes feasting
On the salt-streaked flesh of summer revelers

It eats and eats and eats and eats,
Whatever thought or care,
Whatever sympathy or empathy
It might otherwise have for its prey
Completely subsumed by the desire,
The burning desire,
The endless desire,
The burning and endless desire
To sate its burning and endless hunger

What was there now is gone,
Enveloped,
Entombed in an endless gullet, waiting
Waiting
Waiting
Waiting to be digested

It may return one day,
The world, one day,
Some day,
On a better, sunnier, happier day

But for now,
The buildings,
The cars,
The people within who live their lives and kiss their wives,
Who hug their children,
Who walk their dogs and pet their cats,
Who pay their bills and prepare their wills,
Who have Facebook profiles
And twitter feeds
And smartphones
And data plans
And heartburn
And ulcers
And migraines
And hypertension,
Who have master’s degrees and GEDs,
Who have mortgages and 401ks,
Who have a tenacious grip on financial security
And a constant yet ill-defined sense of unease
Are gone
All gone
Every single one of them
Devoured by the fog