In the End Everything Burns Up for Reasons Both Mysterious and Predictable

Someone’s new house is on fire
2 years under construction and they never even got to live in it
must stay in an upscale hotel
because in a week the old house will belong to a couple in their late 50s with
are those their children or grandchildren
and what’s with the horse trailer sitting in the driveway I don’t
see any horses around
and the hotel will have bowls of macadamia nuts
but the nuts will be encased in a plastic bag inside each bowl
imported water and a minibar too
and it’ll be close to the beach which was never that far really
so they’ll say now we have a reason to go
but they won’t she’ll go shoe shopping and he’ll hang back and watch
adult entertainment
and at night they’ll pretend they’re having sex like they did when they first met
but really it’ll be normal sex
and the repairmen will take their sweet time fixing the charred-up
new 6-bedroom place
because the view from atop the hill it sits on
is too damn good, and the money’s not bad either.
 
 
 
Connor Douglas Rice is an emerging poet based in Brooklyn, NY. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in DUM DUM Zine, Weirderary, 3Elements Review, and the Kudzu Review. A graduate of Florida State University, he currently works in progressive politics.