Tall Tales
His depressive ideas put me on edge
It always came out with a bad end
like a story where everyone dies.
It was not that I believed him,
like when he spoke of subway cars
which became animated,
and like gigantic serpents
wormed their way to the surface
and sated themselves, devouring hundreds,
thousands of people.
Everyone they encountered
had the potential of becoming a meal
for them, coming up out of the ground
in odd spots where you would never have expected,
A veritable plague.
I read something like that, I said,
in those Dune stories,
and even there it was off on another planet,
a bit far-fetched for here in New York.
Then he smiled, and shrugged,
and I was about to recommend
a good psychiatrist when he began to change.