New Reconstruction
Vines creeping crawling climbing rootless feet legs hands fingers arms torsos roots inverted slithering twisting gripping scalp penetrating mouth ears anus eyes bulging teeth cracking intestines knotting skin burning coughing choking tingling thoughts all gooey like sap down nervous system sick lurching in miles wide long slow spiral a beast circling the drain (the Well) through choking rubble jutting rebar crumbled walls bricks and splintered plywood crawling climbing scraping over coarse limestone chunks of basalt big as shipping containers and spilling through muddy brackish ponds of hungry leeches tiny biting water striders sharp copper brine gasping into sprawling stinging nettle patches cutting scarring lacerating with strips of dripping skin hanging off trees canopies sagged with larvae fat and chitinous and soil all sloppy wet from fetid biles and bodies crushed under huge honeycombed boulders caked in mud bark lichen ants in every furrow crack and crevice carrying hairs and nails and teeth to queens engorged and tumorous nests of moss coyotes soaked in gore impact craters sick with stagnant black sludge crumpled asphalt and centipedes molting on ragged shale mountains born overnight sprouting yellow grass and wild garlic summits streaked with coal thick leafy ivy ringing the sky tendrils reaching down through wet mist boring holes and dissolving rocks hunting dazed dumb naked twitching cowering shapes lifted into icy stratosphere split open and harvested viscera knitted into huge splattered scaffolds empty hides carried away on hurricane winds disintegrating on ocean waves president dead vice president dead every senator dead every television dead every bunker full of red choking on green just like you.
One minute five minutes five hours days days days and nights of harsh sawblade noise from the sky and winding ranges of grassy rock slabs growing out of ruined cities while limbs wrapped innards clogged total bondage life support of irradiated groundwater kamikaze dragonflies and piles of faintly glowing eggs in neat pyramids stacked up abandoned at intersections traffic lights blinking red yellow blinding white over woozy gasoline streams stumbling forward bloodshot hopeless eyes and tripping over huge barbed wire coils past twisted blown out roofless humvees swarmed with flies roses sprouting from oozing seat upholstery ruptured asphalt electric fences cut to ribbons fuseboxes burst by roots bulletproof glass ripped apart and watchtowers turned to ash swallowed by weeds and slipping through shorn rebar into dead towering goliath building white sulfurous plumes distant tornadoes prowling scarabs wide circles of scorched earth smooth glassy and pierced by gypsum shards like lightning bolts huge holes gouged in offices guns hanging on walls falling out of desks barrels bent back on themselves deer and tiger and rhinoceros heads mounted on plaques turning into beehives reinforced concrete cleaved like soft tissue flaking plaster tattered flags mutilated computers radar dishes buried in muck and huge knotted pine trees pushing up bulbous through the floors encircling the basin of the drain (the Well) dead center under the open air and closer and closer rough stone rotted wood threadbare rope and battered clay bucket soft grass perimeter undisturbed no rubble no craters no overgrown nests soft hot rain falling only on your head for days days days as you teeter on the brim.
Falling inky darkness suffocating slimy soggy bits of straw hands knees elbows feet head slamming slick rough stone sick crunching face purple and black and tumbling head over heels terminal velocity past wax stalactites luminous poisonous mushrooms steel vents blasting frostbite smoke thick syrupy blood freezing flaking off exposed shattered bone webbed like a maple leaf traumatic fractures dull light fish skeletons hanging off bent rusted nails and shrieking bats flapping scratching farther and farther and farther and walls falling away damp air whipping past water droplets forming new bruises speckling exhausted fevered body system triaged by fibrous stalks palpitating bruised discolored organs sick cruel feeble consciousness endless downwards plummeting infinite blackness soaking sluicing overflowing pouring in drowning like tar like ink like blank staring eyes everywhere at once inside out nothing but expanding void flat and tessellated a thousand parsecs curvature of nothing of cloying darkness and echoing rasping omnivorous screams a bright star a blind animal inner and outer dying space globs of time leaking like pus from clotted apertures every blood and flesh and muscle cell another howling hollowed out caliginous tomb an endless suffocating abyss whipped with mist stretched on the rack overwhelming eclipsing no person no self no being nothingness and then full suddenly of writhing wriggling vines black like eels sprouting phosphorescent red leaves spackled by twisted limbs giant compound eyes shoots of nightshade skeletal obsidian spires thousands of miles every direction a beating ashen heart beyond horizon beyond vision beyond thought and a single depthless pool of clear perfect pristine water right beneath your final rattling breath.
Your body passes through the surface like a whisper, and the sky punctures.