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When you left
I remember that day, the day you left and your stomach took over. We did not say anything or lash out at anyone. We became busy working to feed the bottomless abyss and the overinflated ego. We forgot your name and place in society. We died the day you left and your stomach took over. We buried laughter and humour and in its place grew sadness and despondency. We lost our lives and our hearts were full to the brim with death. When you left the children felt the space and the adults felt the gap. Our fear grew by the mile and there was no one to calm us down when we became unsettled. We had to fear being alive more than we did being dead. Some of us lost their lives but all of us lost our hopes. Though we did not thin on the outside, our will, our strength and our ambitions starved, for when you left and your stomach took over, we could no longer move, for it had cast on us a shadow long and dark that terrified the sleeping and the awake. It left fingers of nightmares that tickled us in our sleep, flames of hunger that ravished us every morning, the hunger for purpose and a means. We quit the day you left and your stomach took over, for we found no reason to keep fighting a purposeless war, heading to a place with no name or destination. We feared, Moses, the day you left and your stomach took over; for we did not know how long we would have to walk in the wilderness. We wanted to go back but it was too far out. We had to stay and follow our tormentor, hoping that someday you would come back. We did not know that it would be this long, and your grip this strong. Your stomach is chocking and strangling us. We cannot breathe right now for the layers of fat clog our nostrils and suck breath out of our lungs. If you are not coming soon then never come back again, for we shall be long dead and gone, for the day you left and your stomach took over, we knew it was a wrong choice to keep walking but we still did anyway. But rest easy children, rest easy. They are all just apparitions, ghouls that roam the night. The layers are all in your dreams. They shall never get to taste morning. Come hide in my arms. Come and take refuge in my lap, and I shall hold you tight and never let you go. Look up and see; morning is just around the corner. Wipe the tears off your eyes, for the stomach tells us when to eat but we are the ones who tell it what to eat, and soon when the coal gets too hot we shall skip away and run.my

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