Disclaimers:  The characters herein belong to 1013. No harm intended, well, except to alien invaders and my sanity, apparently. Written for the X-Files 'dictionary' lyric wheel. Word received (thanks Jennie) was:

quidam (n / pronoun):
quidam (n / pronoun):
somebody; unknown person.
a certain person or thing (known but not necessarily named). Also used occasionally in phrases in the sense of 'a kind of' or 'so to speak.'



 

 

 

...of my enemy


They talk as if it were new, as if
no one had ever stood against the world

and held

as if you were the first

the only

the enemy

the enemy(you're not)

but that's why you're still alive,

tovarisch

the old men in their smoking towers
they can't control you and they can't distract you and

still yet they cannot kill you 

and so you're

the enemy

the enemy(you're the thorn in their side. You're the one who knows too much and too little, the one that is neither this nor that, up nor down, south nor west. You're the one who'll fight in the shadows but walk in the light, who'll take the bait and follow it past the hand that laid it, walk to where the path runs out and still refuse to stop)

but that's why you're still alive,

tovarisch

so when tomorrow the ruin of their plans
sends fumes throughout their fortress

they'll look to you 

they'll see you: you

the enemy

the enemy(stumbling into the dark and traipsing blithely through the tattered leavings of every failed experiment you shouldn't in a thousand years of hunting find--you're the X-File you hunt, Mulder.)

And that is why you're still alive,

moy drug

Because there is a weapon to use against them
and there is a way to keep them gone

Because you're the one they most want

dead

and you're the one they most want

vanquished

and you're the one still 

here. You're

the enemy

the enemy(you're a tool

to turn in my grasp and 

bite the hand that feeds me)

the enemy

the enemy(a distraction

to take their attention and detour their plotting)

the enemy

the enemy(of my enemies—

does that make you

my friend?)

and laughter scalds
bounced from shadows

and mirth injures

when loosed from shackles

and still they think you're

the enemy

the enemy(as if! I've met the enemy. I've walked beside them and fought beside them, done their bidding and cleansed their messes, all the while shadow-boxing behind their notice, beneath their care. And unlike you, they never suspected

care. And unlike you, they never suspecteda thing)

So they'll smile

and they'll welcome me aboard

and they'll watch the screens they'll 

track you on as once again you're here

when everyone could swear you were there

and they'll not look inside this arm

-- the hollow one you gifted me --

and they'll never see their

death

in vials

iridescent in the night

while they watch your personal ray of sunshine

bringing light to all they've hidden so long in darkness

and they'll talk 

as if it's new, and 

no one has ever pried a world and its 

secrets from their grasp

as if they've never had to flee

before

beforetomorrow

we have a date with destiny,

my friend. So tonight

I'll stand here in the shadows with

my back against the wall

watching you

remembering

sunlight on my skin and

the smell of coffee

before it became just one more reminder

I don't need

I don't need(black and viscous: bitter. Swirling in the cup as though to escape, would it but could. Dribbling over the rim and trailing thick across skin to pool in crevices at the join of wrist and hand; swallowing the light as you swallow it and who wants that, anyway?) So

I'll lurk, and I'll listen, and I'll

mourn the way you talk

as if it were new

It's not. It's only here.
 
 


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