my mother used to tell me the tale

of the man who swallowed the sky

she said long ago there was a boy

whose life was spent in wanting

who looked for his answers at the bottom of a bottle

but found nothing of any use

so he looked elsewhere

in the prick of a needle

the haunt of serotonin

tobacco and gold

he consumed it all but found no relief

so he ate a girls heart

boiled her brain in brine

but was empty inside

so he fed on his family

his home and his friends

he consumed it all but found no relief

so he tore great trees from the ground like toothpicks

fed on the bark and the sap

chewed on dried leaves washed down with rivers

he ate the sun and the moon

the glaciers and the mountain ranges

he lay down and opened his mouth

and sucked in the stars

he consumed it all but found no relief

so he swallowed the sky

the earth and the fire

until all that was left was darkness

it engulfed him

trickled through his veins like jet black ink

turned his skin first white as ice then pitch as a shadow

the darkness consumed him, smothered his will

and as his eyes shut for one last time

he realised his folly

and begged for one last chance

one last wish, to save his soul

and out poured the darkness

the sky and the soil

the stars shot from his fingers and filled the air

the moon and the sun took back their rightful place in time

the trees burst through his skin and settled back in the ground

his family and friends crawled from his gullet

and the girl came last

his body lay on the ground

gaunt and hollow but alive

the past lay behind him like a spectre

but the future stretched before him

eternal and full of hope

as he rose from the ground he smiled

gazed into the great sun

and picked a dried leaf from between his teeth.