Youve Never Seen Everything

                                                 listening to Cockburn he was reminded of the fools hed 

met who told him  Stop!

theyd seen it all

--   There aint nothing new under the sun or in Paradise  You might as well quit looking

they were older than he

and it seemed these Aged wanted those who were younger than them to throw in the towel

concede to their experience

                                                                                                                                                                          

where the hell had they been looking all this time

he couldnt image

his xperience dictated he kept his eyeballs peeled

on occasion

something waft before their unblinkered untethered watch and asked  --   Didja see that

--   The fuck I did

--   Whawazat

--   Donknow  Never saw anything like it before

  

a night earlier he rushed to his grrlfriends cry in their bedroom  she was curled like a snake 

at the head of the bed against the wall  their pillows a dam at her tortured bent knees   

her finger pointing accusingly at a black writhing inch-long thing midbed

--   Whaddafuck

--   Kill it!

--   I aint killing something because its ugly  Hell  if that were the game I wouldnt be here

--   Well do something   her voice rising with every letter of the words she uttered

--   Right back

--   Where the hell . . . he was back before she completed the sentence . . . are you going

he kept a small mason jar and lid in his bookroom just in case

she wasnt good with insects

 

he wished he knew what he wasnt good with

once in captivity in glass they examined it to determine what it was

--   It crawled out of my laptop 

--   A virus

--   Just because you saved my life dont think for a moment Id spare yours

she ran a tough bargain

they ran entomologies on her evacuated laptop and figured it a snakefly

he read

--   Snakeflies molt more than ten times before they develop into mature adults  As adults 

they prey on insects and eat pollen

Babe theyre like my spiders theyre on our side

--   Your side

--   Benign creatures are always on our side

she had no tolerance for ugly creepycrawly or slither

 

but she kept her eyes open

she was susceptible like him

they had roommates who died years ago and had learned their names and called them in the middle of the night or stood in the bedroom doorway cautiously  and when they realised they 

saw them from their bed theyd back out of the doorway and evaporate in the hall

they made stomping sounds in the livingroom or jiggled doorknobs which forced him to rise 

to be sure it was just them  and returning to bed hed say  --   Yous wanna keep it down 

please  Were trying to sleep  Thank you

the whole while their cat stayed in bed with her alertly  but without any vigor interest 

or curiosity for what happened outside of the bedroom  a real tiger that one  refusing 

his mantle as Guardian or Man of the House

or their scarce thin visages floating over their faces as they lay in bed  curious  watching

there was nothing to do any more than parent would  look into their childs face and gently 

urge them back to bed  It wasnt time to be up just now

and theyd sift away  with a kind of regret

it seemed to him the Aged who had told him otherwise about Life had lost a playfulness and curiosity

and deferred the inestimable once-in-a-lifetime occurrences 

which could be missed in the bat of an eye

and that so very many  inevitably were

he didnt get it

but it wasnt his to get

he wouldnt concede

and he trusted that his and her accedence stilled the cork in hand and left the bottle open 

spilling its contents

until all manner of things unknown had escaped

twisting and tantalizing the eyes and senses of those who steadfastly watched

holding their breaths

each and every damn one

a voyeur

2142,  Twosday,  2  9. 14