His arms lag, head swirls
Blue

Escape, he tells no one, and drinks
Anger from a beckoning glass bottle
It swallows him up with a dragon's jaws
Into slick astral non-flight
Indigo

All too soon he thuds back to life
With a monster for a reflection
And a ravenous voice inside
It begs, claws through his stomach
To his throat, to his hands
Leads him back into toxic whiteness
Orange, yellow, burning …

In reality, he looks
Just like ashes
Stepping off the floor
Gray

He rises, desperate
Stumbles out
Into a steel and glass forest
Into the teeth
Of wolves in waiting
Absolute black