Empire Of The Senseless

I walk into a sauna at two in the morning. I lay my aching muscles on the hot wood. He walks in, starts pacing. Starts breathing. Beads of sweat are sliding down his dark brown skin. I watch them. I watch them drip off the edge of his pelvic bone. I hear them hit the top of his shorts the floor the wall’s on fire. ‘Kinda feels like crying in here, doesn’t it? Can you hear the flames on these walls? I can. Do you listen to yourself cry? Do you let yourself moan like a baby? Do you let yourself put down your defenses for your own attempts to console the babyboy inside?’ I’ve broken a social silence. It was comfortable. Now he’s conscious of his breath. He tries to control it. He tries to think. He tries to speak, realizes he has nothing to say. ‘You don’t have to say anything. This isn’t an interrogation kid, I’m just observing. It’s all I do.’ He stops pacing. Leans against the flames, doesn’t look away. He hasn’t stopped looking deep into my eyes since I opened my mouth. He lifts his spine, still ablaze, and