Dress quickly
Don’t ask questions
Don’t
Don’t turn on the light
Leave the curtains
Closed
Your clothes
They’re on the bed already
Put on the sandals
Not the shoes
No time for laces
No time
No time
No time to brush your hair
Or your teeth
Take a swig of this
It’s mouthwash
That’ll have to do
You’re sweating already
That’s all right
It happens
I’d be sweating too
If I hadn’t already been up
All night
Waiting for this
To happen
I knew
I knew
I knew this would happen
But I didn’t know
Until I knew
Because I hoped
I hoped
And I’m a fool
For hoping
Head towards the door
And don’t make a sound
The time for safe sounds
Is over now
You’ll never make
A sound again
Go down the hall
And make a left
And then another left
Down the stairs
One at a time
Don’t rush
But don’t dally
Right now
Just dress quickly
And don’t cry
Whatever you do
You can’t cry
Crying takes time
And we don’t have time
We barely have time
For you to get dressed
But we still have to live
In civilized ways
Even after civilization
Is gone
Take a bottle of water
It should be by your bed
And that’s all you’ll need
For now
When we get outside
You’ll get in the car
But you can’t go to sleep
Because I might need you to wake up
And if I need you to wake up
You’ll have to be alert
And ready
To abandon the car
And do whatever it is
I tell you to do
If I say go towards the forest
You’ll go towards the forest
If I tell you to stay low
You’ll stay low
Whatever I tell you to do
You’ll do
Just like right now
You’ll dress
And quickly
Slow is something
You’ll never know again
Along with so many other things
That up until now
We took for granted to the point
Where we thought they were words
And nothing more
But now ‘slow’ and ‘safe’
And ‘loud’ and ‘brave’
They mean nothing now
And you’ll never say them
Or know what they mean
From now on
Dress quickly
And start to forget
Forget whatever you can
And whatever you can’t
I’ll have to take from you
I don’t want to
But this is how I get you
To another night
Where you can lay down
Fully dressed
Knowing at any point
You may have to open your eyes
And already be prepared
To run
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