Petition

In the flypaper morning,

when you unpeel

the still-twitching bodies

of those who have laid too long

tangled

in your adhesive sheets

and have stuck there;

when you rouse them cruelly

from their sleep

and set them,

concussed and unwashed,

back on the streets that bred them

and baited them,

tortured and tutored them,

and - at different points

and according to different whims -

accepted and rejected them,

just as you did;

when, after you've

- smiling -

evicted them,

you pull from between your perfect teeth

a strand, a fibre

of something that was once them,

and realise

that you've utterly forgotten their names,

do you ever wonder

if it might not be in all our best interests

for you to suture shut your mouth?

It's gotten us all into trouble

too many times,

making bright, promiscuous promises

you've no hope

or intention of keeping.

Some people will believe anything.

 

So I'd encourage you to sew your lips closed now.

Then afterwards,

maybe fewer people will need stitching up.