Suffocating Gloom Versus Suffocating Doom

A thick cloud covers

the living room floor

to my waist

pours like a cottony river

out of the closet door

onto the porch

being stuck in an airless

dark

closed attic

almost sounds like

a good time

next to this

trip on a chair leg

submerge in the cold whiteness

pull my T-shirt over my mouth

grope for a clear space

to scramble out the door

foggy swirl drains into the back yard

with Mr. Crunch safe under my arm

I dash to our dock

the fog seeps along the surface

of the lake heading for Austin.