John Casey
Everything is perfect
Just now
I’m floating
On a baby blue cotton candy cloud
Someone is playing Enya
On a harp nearby
And I’m spooning from
A huge crystal bowl
Of mint chocolate chip
Between mounds of heavenly dotted verdigris
I grab fistfuls of cloud
And let it go all melty sugary in my mouth
As a golden unicorn sashays gracefully by
Humming along to Orinoco Flow
Out of nowhere a lightning bolt
Splits the unicorn in two
His green blood splatters everywhere
Dissolving swaths of sweet blue puff
The music stops
Replaced by a chorus of screams
Covered in my mint dessert
Or unicorn blood, which is it?
I begin to sink through
It grows dark and algid
As more thunderbolts crack the sky
I’m falling rapidly now
Eyes shut tight
Hands cupped over my ears
To muffle the shrieking
Praying to wake, apprehensively
In light of an impending dread
For the reality
That will greet me when I do
***
John Casey graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1992 and from Florida State University with a Master of Arts in 1994. A 22-year Veteran, John served globally as a tactical airlift and developmental test pilot, and later as an international affairs strategist and military diplomat in Germany, Ethiopia, and at the Pentagon. John’s work has appeared in Into The Void Magazine, The Remembered Arts Journal, The Flumes Literary Journal, Anapest Journal, Pamplemousse, and elsewhere. His writing is inspired by the incredible spectrum of people and cultures he has experienced throughout his life. “Unicorn” is from the book Raw Thoughts by John Casey, to be released by Adelaide Books in July 2019. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/