Time is a giant serpent that wraps its body around the earth
until its head touches its fat tail.
When that happens, the serpent bites into its own flesh and fat gushes forth
catching fire from the sun.
This is an old story. It is the story
of many ancient people. Yours and mine alike.
When I look around today, I see many-headed serpents everywhere
eating their own tails.
We are modern now.
We don’t need the sun to ignite the apocalypse.
Bunkong Tuon is a Cambodian-American writer and critic. He is the author of Gruel, And So I Was Blessed (both published by NYQ Books), The Doctor Will Fix It(Shabda Press), and Dead Tongue (Yes Poetry). His prose and poetry have appeared or are forthcoming in New York Quarterly, Copper Nickel, Lowell Review, Massachusetts Review, The American Journal of Poetry, carte blanche, Diode Poetry Journal, Paterson Literary Review, The Mekong Review, Consequence, among others. He teaches at Union College, in Schenectady, NY.