Gazelle by Auden Koeneke
Gazelle by Auden Koeneke
The world doesn’t stop When things stop there is fear Sometimes the world moves fast and blurry and sometimes it is slow and sharp and crisp But it never stops, not for always. Grasses always moving along and moving against, and trees run closer and farther, and the safeones, they are always near, and they run too except they stop when there’s heat or red. In the heat the world gets slow, and quiet and strange when there is no light and only cold. There is fear everywhere Fear is always. Fear is in the grass and the water Following the trees Where the teeth are. The world will never stop, never stop, world, or fear fills and hurts and burns.
Sometimes there is stopping without red. When hunger comes in or the water grows so sweet and cool like when the world feels dry, then things stop and tasting happens because there’s safeones, safeones all around and leaning down to the grass and stepping into the water. Safeones tell when teeth are near and they can smell them rotting closer. Then they move like the world does In fear. Always the world moves from fear.
No,
Motherone.
Safest safeone was Motherone. No fear with her When Motherone was close and warm and looked She looked with eyes like light in the sky Safe too like her smell. And Motherone stayed close always. Teeth in the water. There were teeth in the water but Motherone was near with other safeones and stepping and too close and the teeth came up and red and she stopped and the safeones were moving and then there were more teeth and more stopped and there was red And there was fear. There was no Motherone and only fear And the world moved and doesn’t stop.
Sometimes when the light is slipping down heavy and so warm and pink, the grasses stop, and the water too, and the trees and the teeth and the fear. And there is only light, and Motherone sometimes, and the colors are so much and there is no fear. No fear when the light dips in colors
No world but light and Motherone.
But then light goes and fear never went really, and everything moves and the world doesn’t stop.