Thank you to Iris for creating the Reverse Gear Challenge which inspired me to give this an update.


Demons: A Survivor's Guilt in Pantoum

He runs faster. He runs farther.

Started with his drunken father.

The crack of a whip, gunfire, broken bones.

These horrors drive him far from home.

Started with his drunken father,

those hallow, haunted, staring eyes.

These horrors drive him. Far from home,

he scrapes a living, hiding behind the lies.

Those hollow, haunted, staring eyes,

So many corpses lying dead.

He scrapes a living, hiding. Behind the lies,

it should have been him. Instead,

so many corpses. Lying. Dead.

The crack of a whip. Guns fire. Broken. Bones.

It should have been him instead.

He runs faster. He runs farther.