Player One Forever

daliz ramirez

Lights hum, music plays, and laughter swells.

Coins clatter, sticky soda coats the floor.

Neon glows flash bright like casting spells,

Bells jingle, tickets spill…a retro store.

The joystick groans beneath my steady hand,

(So close) the final boss appears in flame.

I strike, I fail; I fall, I rise, I stand,

An endless loop of quarters feeds the game.

Yet here, where echoes spark against the dark…

(I’ve played for years, it seems, though none can see),

The voices call my name, each sound a mark:

Insert Coin Here, they whisper endlessly.

But as I pause, the clock strikes three, and I

Forget I left this world when I first died.