Terrible Things

By Cliff Lake

 

Terrible Things

 

He could not speak.

He could not speak

Because of the terrible things.

They hadn’t happened yet.

He had to speak.

They overwhelmed him,

The terrible things.

Cataclysms and confrontations,

Concatenations of collapse,

And catastrophe,

And catastrophe,

And catastrophe.

Terrible things.

He could not speak.

He had to speak.

He had no language.

But he could paint.

He painted.

He painted terrible things.

He painted well.

He painted terrible things.

They thought him mad.

They thought him genius.

They bought and bought.

He painted and painted.

And when the first painting happened…

They knew.

And they knew it was too late.

Things were happening.

Terrible things.

And they asked:

“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

And:

“How were we to know these were warnings?”

But

He had no answer.

He could not speak.

 

Cliff Lake 10/24/2024

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2024

Location: Wichita, KS, USA

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