I am in a glass box
Or a cage
Or some terrarium
And, if I do the right tricks
Spin the right wheels, push the right buttons
Sometimes, they throw food in
If I’m really good
Offer some of that food through a little chute
In the side of the wall
And stop biting that spot that always itches
They throw more food in
And give me a blanket for my bed
But
If I’m bad
Make a mess, throw the furniture around
Or even just start standing the wrong way
If they get bored
They take away the bed
And don’t give me food
And throw lit matches in instead
Or sometimes they turn the heating off
And it gets so cold that my skin blisters
But after a while they stop
And I get food again
I don’t remember how I got here
I have no track of time
They control the day and the night
That, or the light on top of the glass box just cycles like that
I just know that I have been here long enough to watch the food rotting
And then I blink and I think
“That food has always been rotting
It has always been like this
There’s nothing outside of this
Quit being stupid
You’re too hungry to think”
I forget
I don’t remember much except that I forget what I remember
I can hear, though
I can hear footsteps, scurrying around me
I can’t perceive it visually but I can ascertain it
The presence of others
All around me
I’m just one in a sea of translucent glass boxes
Or maybe I’m just hearing things
I do that a lot
I forgot again
There’s a blind spot
Where they can’t see everything
I don’t eat anymore
It hurts but it doesn’t kill me
Nothing really kills me it seems
I realized that a week ago
Or was it a month ago?
A year?
I’ve been dumping half of my food into the chute
So I get more
And the other half I pile in the corner
Along with all the blankets, and all the toys, and all the furniture
When they’re looking
When the crashing around me stops
I do little tricks
And other little movements
And from this I get more food
That I keep piling
I can watch it rotting
Time feels faster now
A lot faster
My pile shrinks and it stinks like death in here
But I’m getting further
The pile’s getting taller
Even the rugs are molding now
I keep going
Because I know that
When the pile’s tall enough
I’m going to climb up it
And I’m going to leap through that stupid little hatch at the top of this glass box
And then
Once I’m through
I’m going to tear apart every single glass box that I can find