These are colors unseen
& fires unhidden
but you have to look
to discern.

In the darkness
of these corridors
we crouched
amidst low-hanging
ferns and sterile white
lights.

Wild animals crept
outside the windows,
birds perched on the
windowsills,
there were fish in the
streaming brown
sewage.

Beyond the wide wooden
doors, in the auditorium,
there are fires burning
that no one has seen.

There are plays
going on constantly,
embittered actors on
the stage, tightrope walkers
bedecked in merriment,
never looking at the sun,
pale like a polar bear's
fur.

They usher us in one
by one, taking our tickets,
and send us in
over & over
to burn in their
eternal furnaces.