Man’s Condition

Cold, hard, safe and sound,

His peace of mind stays well

As he moves his hand down his chest

And to his heavy gut; touching the vault,

Opening only to a code known by his heart.

Every chance he gets, he smiles, he laughs, he oozes joy.

Humanities purest euphorias are shared by him with others,

And her.

But he does it to hide what he can’t show,

Pushed down, and kept quiet.

The warmth of his eyes and his hands always lit her fire in its faintest times,

Without fail, and without complaint.

She was only ever met with a jovial smirk and a kiss on the head.

In desperate times, he stood strong and quiet, as it was a must, a duty of his.

In the calm, and dark nights, she’d move down from his fleshy, soft, and warm chest, to his paradoxical contraption. Always curious, but aware of his wishes.

“Never open this box. It holds things only meant for me”.

It was only a mistake, but it was all that was needed.

In his slumber, she laid in tranquility with his presence, and turned the safe’s knob to the rhythm of his heart. In her surprise:

Click.

Although unwittingly, her error piqued her curiosity, and with the box open, she took her quick glimpse into this new world.

The wealth and joy she expected was only met with reality:

Inside, rather, was a barren forest, littered with unoccupied trees,

Trees that she knew had once bore life, or at least hoped so.

The forest parted, leading to a melancholic clearing, drained of color.

It was vacant except for one scene:

The carcass of a Deer being picked to the bone by the Birds flying above.

Each dive into the beast ended with the flock slimming, as more and more Birds met the Deer’s fate.

A twisted nature that seemed natural,

She moved from the cracked safe to his face and saw the truth:

What she was shown to be raging waves in a vast ocean were only ever small pulses in drying pond.

The blank, glossed look in his open eyes showed her how much a shell he was. 

His lifelessness matched that of his hidden buck, and it forced her to ask that morbid question in her mind.

“How long had he been dead?”