Dark Poetry: Remaining Debts

tender predators navigate the mazes.  loud enough to make us listen. 

torn footprints on empty staircases. lead us softly into trembling futures. 

the mad wolf polishes his fangs. while the piglets fiddle with their fragile houses. 

our stories easily betray us. even as we move to find the moral. 

the distance presses. all our steps corrupted by time's thoughtless pendulum. 

the monsters scurry. more victims than we care to acknowledge. 

the thieves keep counting. all the things they've taken.

long after we no longer need them.