Hypnosinister

Through a maze of cobbled streets

A misty malaise meanders

Dimmed orange by humming street lamps

The harm of charm

Fug disguised as a hug

Throttles my attention

Until my eyes are wide open

Footsteps echo in cranial corridors

A perennial drifter plods on the cobblestones

A bulge in his coat

A lump familiar with surprise

Fog lingers lower

The machination of memory

Images I'd hoped had been laid to rest

Forever

He’s uglier than I remember

Flaky skin

Teeth jagged as quartzite, stained amber

With eyes that roam like a wiry vagabond

His breath on my cheek

A pungent warmth

Comfortable in its clamminess

Resist

Please resist

He opens the buttons on his coat

One

By

One

Like a flasher in slow motion

Showing no emotion

An ambiguous glint beyond bloodshot eyes

I’ve shared sago with headhunters deep in jungle melange

I’ve hiked where yetis lurk in turquoise tarns

I’ve ridden beasts bareback, mane in hand, initiated into manhood

Yet as his coat falls open

I revert to an adolescent stupor

A blooper, a blip

An evolutionary dip

As he spreads his lapel

I shrink into my shell

His face…

Hypnotised

By the spells of words

That will never be spoken