By Megan Cannella
Do you think the people who live out here lock their doors?
Probably not, no one is around, so there’s nothing to lock your doors about.
But probably they do, right, because if no one is around, how can you be safe?
How many bodies do you think are buried out here?
I don’t want to think about that.
You know statistically, in your life, you’ve known a murderer.
Wouldn’t a person know if they knew a murderer?
In all the people you’ve ever met you’re saying none of them have been murderers, not even a little bit?
Come the apocalypse, would you fight to stay alive?
Yes.
I mean a real apocalypse. Things are never-getting-better kind of apocalypse.
Yes.
How long would you fight for?
I want to live.
How long do you want to fight for?
I want to live.
I don’t want to fight at all. But I don’t want to be killed by someone who doesn’t know how to kill and just stabs me in the stomach like a fool. I’d have to find someone who can kill me correctly, like they know how to mercy kill during an apocalypse.
What?
I have a buddy.
He’d have a compound, no doubt.
He’d make me eat squirrel,
but he’d kill me like he knew what he was doing.
Megan Cannella (she/they) is a neurodivergent Midwestern transplant currently living in Nevada. Their chapbooks, Eldest Daughter: A Break-up Story (Porkbelly Press 2023), I Redact You, Too (Alien Buddha Press 2022) and Confrontational Crotch and Other Real Housewives Musings (On Tap Publishing 2021), are out now and available at https://linktr.ee/mcannella. You can find Megan on Twitter @megancannella and on Instagram @meeeeegancan
