Looking into the Eye of Sorrow
A Slow Hard Screw to the End of the World
by Joanna Roter
Drinking at two in the morning. Dreaming with eyes wide open as the sinews of yesterday's prospect dissolves into another starry night. Those stars are like dreams made crystalline by the reality in the blackest blue of nightfall. Bodies encounter each other drenched in perspiration making the mistakes that tongues dare not speak in the harsh daylight sun. Continue forward or possibly backwards, down, around, and inside out. Anything to elude the confrontation of truth. Acrobatic maneuvers that embrace a way of life, a life devoted to detachment and rational thought. Yet the anticipation of masochism pollutes the earnest reason. Walking a line thin and true, steadily on the path to desired righteousness. So effortless to tumble off the path and dwindle downwards to earth below. The decline feels so immaculate but the ground is less desired. Cold in its harsh and barren crust.
Joanna Roter is a graduate of UW Milwaukee with a Bachelor Degree in Creative Writing. Currently employed in the world of high finance. Hobbies include movies, comics, music, singing, dancing, cocktails, philosophy, and knitting.
Pic: Looking into the Eye of Sorrow by Suraiya “Ruma” Haroon, used with permission. Ruma is currently a graduate student in genetics at UW Madison.
