These two
Were not the cause
Of the mishap;
Have I not taught you well?
This mistake may well be
The death of us.

—Sir,
The chemical has entered the water main.

You pathetic scoundrel,
What have you done?
We can surely not bypass this now.
There is no way to escape this.
We cannot take that detour we took before.

        Metal
        Clanks on metal
        All around the pipeline.
        There’s something
        In that water
        That was not there before;
        Something had come in with the chemicals.

—Sir,
The problem has been taken care of;
Now there’s no one left to blame,
Though I fear it made our problems worse.


* * *


There’s something in the water,
Lurking between sips.
But I’m too tired to keep my eyes open,
To see what it is.

They told me it wasn’t safe to drink;
But I’ve been down that road before,
And nothing had happened after all.
But this time things seem different.

My movements seemed to fail,
And my grip loosened,
Causing the mug to explode on the floor,
Its entrails reaching as far as the kitchen.
And I begin to crawl for the rag…

But then I hear metal
Clank on metal
Somewhere by the counter.
There’s something in the sink
That was not there before;
Something had come in through the faucet.

And then the screen went black.