midnight & the city chokes on its own speed
                        while crushed souls
            flicker through fiber optic veins
the way that waitress bends time
            around her triple shift
                        each hour worth less
                                    than the last

& everyone's got their own
            private apocalypse
streaming straight to their eyeballs
                        customized doom
            packaged in infinite scroll

we're all
        just trying to catch
                    our breath between
                            notifications
                                    ain't we?

& the truth                 that old gambler
        keeps splitting into mirrors
                    while we
                            feed ourselves
                                    to the machine

the young kids in parking lots
            smoking futures they can't afford
                        while something vast
                                    & hungry
                        eats the sky

& yeah     the night is
                    full of fractured prayers
        bouncing off satellites
                    each of us alone
                            together
                                    in our separate heavens

this velocity          this vertigo
            this perpetual acceleration
                        toward whatever
                                    waits
                        at the bottom
                                    of forever