The Ofi Press Magazine

                           bRATs

I simply don’t understand how rats would

sense that we are twelve elephants trapped

in cuffs up & down in a train with no driver

I hear them running on the roof against

the wind born in this tunnel we pass through

I see few on the front window how they stare

with their red rabid eyes

some started to bang their heads on the double pane glass

and when getting tired others come & eat them & continue

the ritual until there’s place for fangs to action blindly

moments later they managed to get in covered with blood

started to draw concentric & tangent circles in their run

bloody traps strengthening the cuffs

that now became snakes at our feet

our trunks’ whistling seems inappropriate

the white area within the circles becomes

smaller and smaller so from time to time

they taste our skin layers and step by step

my mates’ fears turn into mine and

suddenly I’m the only one left

tired & peaceful

  Poem by Marius Surleac (Romania)

Published in The Ofi Press Issue 34