Tainted (Free Verse)

Photograph taken at Andersonville National Historic Site in central Georgia.
A gorgeous day:
the sky is blue;
the air is crisp,
and a bird swoops in low
over the field to land
in search of insects.

The sign is kind of a bummer:

It tells me that 13,000
people died here --
most by shitting themselves
into unconsciousness.
(it doesn't use those exact words.)

This is Andersonville --
site of a Civil War prison camp.

Here, I believe in ghosts.
I don't believe in ghosts
when drinking my morning coffee
at my dining room table.
I don't believe in them when I
turn off my bedside lamp.
I don't believe in them anywhere --
anywhere else -- really.

But here they vibrate up
through my boot heals,
and I fear I may
shit myself.

Into the Darkness [Lyric]

Photograph taken in the "Tunnel of Nine Turns" (九曲洞) in Taroko Gorge (太鲁阁.)
Shadow-striped --
Juxtaposing day with night,
And wrong with right,
And never with always --
Down the long striped
Hallway...
Until it ends in darkness.

PROMPT: Routine

Daily writing prompt
What part of your routine do you always try to skip if you can?

The part that feels routine.