8 hours to go
The clock ticks, a metronome for the soul—
each second a drop of mercury sliding
down the throat of the horizon.
Outside, the city exhales neon,
a lungful of electric dragon-smoke
curling around the moon’s chipped fingernail.
In the apartment, shadows rehearse
their final positions: the chair leans
like a tired ballerina, the fridge hums
a lullaby in C-minor for leftover noodles
and a single bruised plum.
Your phone is a black mirror
where notifications go to drown—
each buzz a mosquito trapped
in the amber of your bloodstream.
Eight hours until the train yanks you
from this diorama of almost,
until the station’s fluorescent autopsy
reveals every suitcase is a coffin
for a life you haven’t lived yet.
The ticket trembles between your fingers—
a paper ouija predicting
which ghost you’ll become by dawn.
You count the remaining heartbeats
like loose change for the ferryman:
seven hours, fifty-nine minutes,
fifty-nine seconds of carbon monoxide sunsets
and the smell of rain on hot asphalt—
a perfume called Last Chance.
The walls sweat memories:
her laugh fermenting in the drywall,
the way he said stay
as if the word were a tourniquet
for a wound you didn’t know you had.
Soon the hallway will swallow
the echo of your keys,
the landlord will paint over
the crime-scene outline of your coffee rings,
and the stars—those ancient liars—
will reset their countdown
for the next traveler.
But tonight, you are the hourglass.
Every grain of sand is a syllable
you never spoke, a star
you never wished on,
a universe folding itself
into the origami of your clenched fist.
When the alarm detonates,
you’ll crack open like a geode—
inside, perhaps, just more darkness,
or maybe the quiet phosphorescence
of everything you’re still willing to chase.
Eight hours.
Enough time to die seven small deaths
and resurrect yourself in the doorway,
suitcase in hand,
breathing like someone
who remembers how to begin.