he knew this was one way death crept

as surely as he knew that light diminishing to a pinpoint in his eyes meant hed faint and lose consciousness

death however inverted the process

its light would grow larger and larger until it enveloped the whole of his sight

then it would steal his consciousness his unconsciousness

every bit of anything he was 

abruptly he pushed himself to sit up in the lavender-scented bathtub

his head was heavy

weighed down by deaths encroach 

as its white blaze grew in this eyes he unstopped the bathtub roused himself stood shakily and picked his way out of the emptying tub

the drain gurgled louder than he thought it could  but his eyes were closed and it made perfect sense his other senses would be heightened  

he saw in his eyes deaths oval split

startled he opened them  but it remained and obscured his vision

he shut his eyes again and the oval seemed invigorated inspired by his blindness  

assuredly he grabbed a towel from a hook at his right and with it in both hands he rubbed his face

he obstinately pressed his eyes with it and inside them the black background went red

the split oval  undiminished  continued to throbbed

he knew better  no physical action he made could diminish it 

when he worried briefly it might infected his eyes 

he also knew better

he calmed himself talked himself down

deaths parts were going to run their course

it was game he played before

patiently he had to fight it again

going to open his eyes he craned his neck

when he opened them appleseed briefly scurried in her web

again his vision was interrupted penetrated

yet the subtle volley of candlelight  light extraneous to it  helped him gain a foothold helped him begin to besiege it     

closing his eyes it briefly took back what the candlelight stole 

though looking directly into it now he saw the split resembled the outline of Africa  

violently it flopped in his eyes seeming to sense he wasnt going to allow it to escape 

the tip that might be South Africa flipped up and the whole continent followed 

the broken bit resembling a swollen Madagascar did too

it was as if the equator was a wire and Africa a bead impaled on it 

it agitated him but not so much to throw him from his purpose

he reeled

his eyes refused to open again

he felt his face pulling at itself  willing itself  

its underlying muscles pulled hard as they tried force his eyelids apart as he forced consciousnesses outside of himself in

he stood in front of the mirror over the sink

a forelock of hair fell over his left eye as it always does when he needs a haircut  

above him to his left appleseed bounced in her web in the corner agitated  

birds outside from their roosts cry  

their voices entered through the screened window

the flopped Africa metastasised  still groping for something hed taken from it 

he was still having trouble opening his eyes completely 

they caught as if they were stitched 

then his eyelids fluttered

broke open they stared into the mirror

he didnt recognise himself

Africas residual remained in his eyes 

he shook his head rapidly blinked his eyes

he gasped then growled in his throat like an wild animal 

death still crept

then Africa trembled and began to shrink

becoming smaller and smaller its original boneyellow colouring returned

a taunt he believed

then dissipating  an oily hue  a black shadow      

then that miserable excrement was extinguished and subsumed

he stood for a long time reconfiguring himself in the mirror 

he made sure his parts aligned and were mirrorimages  not some vague cancerous affectation left behind by death  some toehold or edge to be grappled by   

in these moments death was more like a disease than a finality

it was a dance

death trying to take the lead

2300,  Sunday,  25  9. 16

1603, Monday,  26  9. 16