A Variation of Selves

One flew over the prairies and grey-lands, a midwestern antihero of picaresque birth,

he joins with others of his type to fight a common enemy in final battle,

creating narratives of revenge and absolution in moral grayscapes -

one sticks his knife to a racist throat, then begs impunity with impassioned closing statements:

This is not who I am!

Far different to the one working a shift at the convenience store (no different from his waking self)

Stacking sandwiches in microfictions of dreary realism, yet only two days past

in the midst of a surrealist landscape, he observed a messy traveller in red parchedlands

shivering against an extraterrestrial sky washed in impasto hues of violet and marigold

Not unlike the one crucified, drinking oil from mechanical crows in Texan heat

Or the one with skin like amethyst planning karaoke with formless friends.

To all the variations of myself,

Under moonlight, I am briefly empathetic