the bite

 one bite will kill you dead

two bites will bring you back to life

three bites will make you go crazy

four bites will make you a

gnawed on scrap of old dusty

beef leather draped over the

banister of rickety crooked

stairs that lead halfway up

and halfway down to nowhere--

three fiends sloughed off

your sorry withered hide into

abyss but there was no

fall. it was a very short drop to

where you were.

those are the bite rules.

---------------------------

this is a poem about how growing up there would be kids who would just confidently tell you rules to things. I guess because they learned about the concept of rules and like, cause and effect. But, you know me, a sucker for serious nonsense.

one time, I'll never forget this, a kid told me (who was also a kid) with a straight face, completely serious,

 "did you know? if you can draw a perfect circle, you're the smartest person in the world. but if you draw the circle backwards, you're the dumbest person in the world."

And I remember hearing that and knowing it probably wasn't true but also thinking, "Hmm yeah I guess that makes sense."