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The Garden of Punishment

Jason Ryberg

3am
and a bell goes off
somewhere in the dank,
cavernous sub-
sub-basement
of my skull,

sending all the lizards
and crickets
skittering,

signaling
once,
twice,
three times,
that once again
the rich, fertile
sub-terran soil of my soul
is about to host
an after-hours
battle royale.

Here is where
the issues, conundrums
and controversies
of the day are nightly
wrestled, reconfigured
and hammered out.

And at this
particular instance
of Insomnolent Half-Dream,
the scenario has assumed
the curious manifestation
of a steel-cage match
(complete with razor-wire,
cowbells and
kabuki sticks!).

In one corner,
the surly, pissy demon
of Pernicious Debt!

In the other,
the voracious troll
of Conspicuous Consumption!

An audience of Shriners,
nuns and Boy Scouts
howls for blood
and tits!

For they know, they know,

before anyone may enter
the Kingdom of Dreams,

they must first walk
through the Garden of Punishment.

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