your headlights looked like vipers
from across the intersection
with glowing eyes hooded
beneath metal lids or
maybe lotuses with
molten cores
(a world in a rose,
or so the story goes)
and i
was the worm in the road- you
were driving into me at
over the legal speed limit and
i froze-

i f r o z e.

.

(now breathe)

concrete walls and twisted
pipes like exhausted vines
leaking poisonous steam-
anti-photosynthesis because
you helped the sunlight sear
and you didn't feed-

you b u r n e d.

i was laughing from
beneath the curtain of an
amputated passenger
door
as i pictured you
s.i.z.z.l.i.n.g,
because this is what you get
when you pollute the atmosphere-

my legs looking like an equal sign from
the other side,
i could see the sky
and it was angel-colored,
with fanged fumes
ripping at the cloud shaped
intestines of its
emaciated belly-

i rode a bike,
but i still died.