Alphabet Soup

Alphabet soup.

Names swim in my head. All the letters scrambling together. In cold broth. On broken spoons.

Dusting the past for fingerprints. Every touch is a crime. Everyone a victim. When we let them change us.

Alphabet soup.

Interchangeable words. Days. Years. Moments.

It's a puzzle not meant to be solved. Random. A collection of useless fragments constantly shifting in their bowl. Straining. Always straining toward the rim.

Deliberately. Fortune walks its three legged dog passed my window. Down my block. Until out of sight at last, it removes the collar.

But somehow, keeps the leash attached.

Alphabet soup. Making words from nonsense. Drowning in the need to.