Someday, you're going to walk past me and never know it. You won't even have a feeling. It'll just be two people passing through. The eyes in the street will all look the same and the colors will all fade into one grey tone and I will walk amongst them a number with no name. My eyes will be dry and my voice will be still and when people look at me, I won't have that quiver in my lip. All the surgeries will have worked. I'll be just like everyone else, finally, no longer a real boy but a wooden clone lost in the lost crowd. Dust and dirt and black uncarved faces and hearts made of stone, not glass. Fists and arms unblemished by scars. Minds blank of anything. Walking nowhere with a purpose. I'll be just like everyone else someday. I'll forget what makes me lie awake. I'll struggle to remember days of sitting on that porch staring out into the unending day. Everyone wants heaven but all I want is to sleep and sleep and sleep and for the world to just forget me.

Photo - N
Words - S