Potions Presumed

We dug. For hours. Discouraged by the wind. Counting the cars. As the road gave up. We fought with the portals. As the future admitted. It didn't know.

Big masks. Little faces. The monsters in their cages. Learning the locks.

She tries the window. No one's there. She tries the door. There is no knob. She questions the fire, but it rages on.

The world is hostile. The road there more so. She tries them on. Choking neckties. Useless men. frozen in their tuxedos.

We are close enough. To admit. That the world doesn't listen. That these time machines we covet will betray us. That how it began will exceed the arithmetic. That insists we are getting close.