even serial killers want people to like them

by wiggly jones, "the little hippie boy"

illustration by danny delacroix

even serial killers want people to like them and smile at kittens if they are really cute and hedge fund managers late at night recall when they were boys with paper routes despairing desk sergeants of death squads peering through the murk of homeless brains most resemble red mosquitoes later, when they miss their shadowy trains repairing to the andromedan coffee shop behind the molochian wall of calcified dreams they remember the first rainbow of their freshman year starstruck, behind lethe’s mauve-tinted streams the battle scarred directors of galactic commerce turning the pages of their hourly reports shut off their eyeballs and secretly smile and gently murmur, yes, it takes all sorts