SNAKELAND TRANSFIGURED: SECTION ONE

* This is a fictionalized account of some shit that actually happened. All the names, locations, etc. have been changed to protect the innocent as well as the guilty. – JG *

autumnal dusk, cathedral shadows

shades of 1985

unnamed suburban street sprawl

miles between curbs

toys left on lawns

manicured, tight

sexy dreams of adolescence

falling asleep with jeans full of cum

cream in your jeans

shadows lengthening

drugstore smell of disinfectant

Stolen Here: candy, gum, condoms, calendars

causes, effects

empty emptied suburban sidestreets

doorways sealed with kisses

preserved in dust

televisions off

electricity silenced

red waves of sunset

lapping at the shores of the sidestreets

walk the curb

this side is lava, this side is sharks

don’t fall in

your eyes your lips your breasts your hands

all washed away out and over

lapping up to lick the bottom of my heart

don’t fall in

strange echoes from the athletic field

cheers, curses

beneath the bleachers the beach

smoke-filled city-states

unwholesome and potent

the fence

it whispers to you now

conjured from a circle of cigarette butts

away

away

red sky at night

red sky at morning

red sky in mourning

red sky forever

nine graves

voices stilled

sadness established

mysteries peeled off

layers of onion

thin last pages

all blank

whodunnit

no one knows

a locked room mystery

in the open air

the streets widen

the air thins

they’re not breathing

no one is

preserved

and airless

"SNAKELAND MUST BE DESTROYED!": ALTERNATE ENDING FOUR

* This is a fictionalized account of some shit that actually happened. All the names, locations, etc. have been changed to protect the innocent as well as the guilty. – JG *

ALTERNATE ENDING FOUR

-Jason. Wake up.-

I sit up, still dreaming, my wife asleep at my side. The teenage Girl sits at the foot of our bed, to the left of me, a strawberry blonde in a black t-shirt under a denim vest. She is scrawny and kind of trashy but she has a very pretty, vulnerable smile. She also has a deep gouge in her forehead and a thin red line dug into her throat where she was strangled.

-Jason. Wake up.-

-What. What do you want.-

-I know you can’t do it.-

I take a moment to measure the gravity of her words. -I really thought I could. I thought, how hard can this be, you know. Found out.-

-Why is it so hard. Is there a part of you that doesn’t want it to end.-

Again, I take my time. -Maybe. But also there’s this other part that feels like...even in the lie of the movie version, giving everything a nice, concise explanation is like...the lie is just too big.-

She smiles sadly, sweetly. –I understand. There are some lies that are too big to tell.-

-I’m sorry.-

-I know you are. You’re forgiven.- She smiles, moves as if to leave, then pauses.

–Take the end. Take the end to tell something else, something true.-

And then she is gone, and something is over, and something else begins.