Dog-eat-dog

I shut my eyes to the world and I see a little boy at the pier, watching ships undock; daydreamer eyes in a mist of strange and distant lands that wouldn't yield to the sound of gunfire. I open my eyes to the stark blue light of sad aftermath and compromise and wish one thing only: to return to innocence.

It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm a dog with a limp and a weak bite.

Huddling into shelter from rains I've summoned, rest comes only in fragments like tiny islands in an archipelago of tiny fears: Having to be cold to survive, having to pretend to appease. Dancing in a suit that doesn't fit but appearing fluent. Liquid lies, quicksilver elusive, dodging all that strife with a smile that frightens on the inside because it actually is believable.

Shivering dog at night now, thinking back and looking forward through a lens muddled by an identity that's slowly dissolving; hunting at night harder now with a moral compass alternating north from south at a whim.

Waypoints all a blur, aiming for the hospital but ending up in a bar.

It's a dog eat dog world.