Ten selfies
Nine shots of jäger
Eight fridge magnets
Seven birthday get-togethers
Six Instagram story tags
Five missed calls at 2am
Four white lies
Three unannounced kisses on the cheek
Two archived, muted WhatsApp groups
One mercurial friendship….
It announces it’s arrival and then plays coy. The more you try to ignore it, the louder it gets but it’s hard to pinpoint the source.
So you eventually give chase, catching it is the most you’ve ever wanted anything.
It slides down the curve of your neck. Runs deliberate slow circles around each shoulder blade. You follow it nervously, as it saunters across the bridge of your spine, does it know it’s being followed?
You get closer, this is chess but with higher stakes. The mere anticipation make your hands quiver
You pounce talon first, your prey is cornered, it’s pupils tiny, surprisingly, it submits, to your progressively more frequent, unbridled scratching
It quivers, and then finally dies with a smile across its face. You wonder, albeit, for a second, if it was you being hunted all along.
I want someone to blame, don’t you?
To point a finger at
Not this sinister envelope
Is it dead? Is it alive? Is it an Austrian cat?
A missive of wicked prose
Breeding as fast as a yawn or a rumour
I want someone to grab hold of
To strangle, choke and punch
Stomp it till it’s pearly whites
Lie in a puddle of bloody sinew
I wish it would admit to being evil
That it enjoys the destruction and death
So I could blame it
But it just sits there
Shamelessly basking in collective fear
Killing without glee or remorse
Perversely, as just as the blindfolded statue
A virus I’ll forgive
But you, you smug bastard
You, I’ll remember
In the beginning there was
Nothing, zilch, nada, 0
Now you’re all alone with 1
Packet of Maggi
But 1 is always too little
And 2, is always too much
So you find a friend
And make 3
Goldilocks concurs, it was just about right
Happy us, high 5?
I should stop now before it’s too late
You’re probably hungry thinking about
All the Maggi I just 8