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/
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By Ken Sanes

It is about

       a world gone mad,

               which is spread out evenly
but clumps together in the place
where there were blood curdling screams.
And it is about right now
                     in the old house
with the creaking door
that opens
                \
slowly
and the thin plane of light
that cuts into the dark entry,
landing on eyes that seem to follow you
from behind a painting.
But certainly you are being paranoid
because there are no apparitions
                  ;
and nothing is moving through the hall.
Then again, now that you’re in, you understand
it is about love and hate, and love of death
pallor,
and the first time,
when the screams are louder
the second time,
and he is mad   utterly mad
imbued with a perfect evil   purified of petty motive
reveling in the ideal of suffering
and finely tuned     not even needing flesh
but     cold       sinister      and incorporeal
laughing maniacally     unseen
in the darkness
             with a sharp blade that
                                            goes
               ­                            /
                                         in

& horrific screaming
                                 ,