CHICKEN LICKEN

CHICKEN LICKEN

As they run down the street crying:
'THE SKY IS FALLING DOWN'
there is terror in their sockets where their eyes once were
myopic sun thoughts blinded by the day
stream in their demon lung
burning air from life and stumbling limb
to leave this fractured world
the story goes, is gone
on
though this time it is not the acorn
there are no trees
no seed
only the collapsing breath
of embryonic black.

The sad truth is
that the sky really is falling down
and there isn't a big enough acorn
anywhere
to knock some sense into the poor dumb creatures
jumping merrily into the flames
the irrationality of their leap
the final perfection
a reality realised
as their fiery fiction consumes them.