First Edition

There’s an earlier draft
with a different ending
where there is no end
for our hero.

The last hundred pages are not blank
and every chapter is not a dark one.

Your heart stays steady
your stomach doesn’t buzz
and sleep isn’t sacrificed to dog ears
that never listen

There’s even a happy ending where things are tied together
in a bow and not a hangman’s knot,

but I guess I’ve never really been one for fiction.