Erin Corwin | No Body | Free Verse

Erin Corwin

BODY

It’s 9:42 pm, and I’m waiting for a train There’s a man. He’s standing on the platform across the tracks He’s been staring at me for the past hour, and it’s gotten to be a little unnerving. He has this look on his face, like there’s some joke about our situation that only he understands I look away, feeling wrong I check the clock, and watch as it changes to 9:43 I look back at the man He’s grinning now, staring straight at me I want to look away, but I’m stuck. Frozen. I can’t cover my eyes or blink or look away or breathe His smile grows wider, reaching past each ear He’s laughing, except he isn’t. He’s making an indescribable sound, it’s pitch claws at the inside of my skull His eyes drill back into his face, becoming black pits, holes that seek to suck the entire world into themselves His face splits apart and folds in on itself simultaneously His entire body is torn apart, until he looks more like a lump of blood and bones and meat than a man …I’m not sure he ever really was a man He continues to twist inwards, until He entirely disappears into a point in space, as if he’d never been there My body’s released, I fall to the ground retching I hear sirens, bells, static, noise, the world is whirling wildly around me I don’t think—

It’s 9:42 pm, and I’m waiting for a train. It’s silent. I’m entirely alone.