HORROR Poem: the billionmou$e king & his loudest echo, by Tess Ezzy

the man who sells stars
(but swallows the sky)
built a tower of teeth
& called it freedom

his hands (so full of nothing)
touch screens & women & dreams
& turn them to static

a mouth like an elevator—
down down down
to the basement of
(where your tax dollars sleep)

somewhere a rocket dies mid-air
somewhere a car is burning but it’s not art
somewhere he names himself god &
(forgets how to pray)

then, there is the other
mouth
so vast it becomes a country
a war
an (exclamation mark!)

it speaks & the clocks rewind
the mirrors crack
the past (which was never gone)
grins wide & steps forward

his hands
shake the world
(but never a book)

his hunger eats itself—
(feeds on the fear it makes)
a beast with its own face
in a suit the color of money

the billionmou$e king & his loudest echo
(louder than God, dumber than light)

& yet the crowd still claps
& yet the ghosts still vote
& yet the night
stretches
(longer than truth)