Tick Tock
Tick tock...
said the clock
on the wall of a world
that forgot
which way
time
was supposed
to run...
The portal opened...
As portals do.
As they always have...
mid-sentence,
mid-breath,
mid-the-ordinary-moment
you were certain
would remain
ordinary....
It did not remain ordinary....
Tick tock... Said the clock...
The cards fell from the sky
like the sky
was shuffling
a deck
it had grown
bored of holding...
Spades...
Hearts...
The suits of a game
whose rules
were written
by someone
who never intended
anyone
to win.
The key hangs there.
Enormous.
Patient.
For a door
you haven't found yet...
or perhaps
for a door
that found you
long before
you thought
to look.
Tick tock... Said the clock
The Red Queen arrived
the way authority always arrives
before you were ready...
before you understood
what readiness
would have required...
Choices cascading
like cards
from a sky
that no longer
pretends
to be a sky.
Follow the white rabbit...
Or don't...
The rabbit knows
where it leads...
That is precisely
why it runs.
Tick tock... Said the clock...
The Mad Hatter walked in
wearing the particular smile
of someone
who discovered
long ago
that madness
is simply sanity
that stopped
apologising
for itself...
Let it begin...
It already began...
It began the moment
you looked up
and the sky
looked back
and the clock
on the wall
of a world
unravelling
said
Tick...
Tock...
Said the clock...
And the figure standing
at the entrance...
impossibly small...
impossibly still...
That is you...
Deciding...
Whether to knock....
