the lifeboat's last voyage

a lifeboat upside down on a sidewalk scraped along the bronze of its gunwales beginning to shine layers of paint peeling off he dragged it behind him approaching the wall finding the door that was locked he hurled the lifeboat against it all of his dreams spilled out the glass jars shattered things lay in puddles that were once in jars things bleached brown instead of green a lamprey eel dead reeking of formaldehyde the fluid clear repulsive yet vapors rose that once were dreams a wind drew them through the doorway over the fragments of the broken door out into a field on the other side so incongruent - a field he followed the vapors through the doorway finding a desert instead a severe light beating down the still coolness of timeless morning sands winds whispering whispering whispering.