There Will Always Be a Winner and There Will Always Be a Shadow Except in Cases of Complete Darkness

Shadow after shadow

Day after day

I'm standing at a safe distance where I'll be safely unaware of the results

Forced marches. Thought patterns going extinct every day.
This very day just disappearing without so much as a poof.

Pixels on pixels vs. the quiet and the loud

The quietest sound ever sounded archetype

The loudest sound ever ignored cliché

Fingernails soothing your still-beating heart

Trickeries of lighting and make-up and costumery and editing and montage

Your head is putting it all together
Sugar burns. Oil burns. Grease burns. Third degree burns. Burnsides' best work. Behest a burn and behest it well.

Deep burnt trenches. Burnt sienna. Brown and brown followed by more brown still.

In-jokes vs. irony? Nobody wins.

Stand up comedy vs. stand-up guy? Depends on what you're looking for.

Mr. Right Now? Depends on whether a pile of insecurities on your couch at 3 in the morning is the kind of right now you are looking for.

Or digestive disturbances.

Or psychotic episodes.

Or a skull-drenching fear that knows to hide in the corner of his eyes whenever you're around

What with your decisions

And your smart scarves

Sunglasses, handbags, shoes, meals at regular hours, laundry done, laundry folded, alarms sounding, showers, more meals, travel.

Travel, travel, travel, travel.

Travel, travel, travel, travel.

Breathe deeply.

Count up the miles.

Let it begin.