OCCUPANT
The sad mailbox of my extreme youth, what did it ever deliver? The only...

A CRITIC
Pick up your socks. Clean the house once in a while. Go to the dentist. ...

HISTORIAN
Piles and piles of books, boxes of documents, photographs, bones, shreds of clothes...

YOU WHO KNOW
I was just enough bigger that I could wrestle you into the clean straw of the mow...

GRIFFY LAKE
I spread my smooth water like a lap and caught the trees' faces where they fell...

Dear Eric,

The world could fall to pieces with no notice. Imagine the nations 
sizzling under bombs big as buildings, or  submission and blood become 
the whole of politics. Picture some bastard microbe creeping amongst 
the billions dispelling ease.

Personal life, too, can come apart in disaster. Awful car wrecks and 
stupid accidents will happen no matter what. You might be the one to 
mishandle a chainsaw or powerline. A hellbent vengeful hoodlum in some 
cheap and raucous bar might knife you by mistake.

Our advice is limited but wholesome. Don't go anywhere in your car. 
Keep low when you walk and stay close to cellars and holes. Sterilize 
your food. Better yet, pack your car with gauze, climb in, have it 
lowered to the bottom of a hole. Wait there till you hear from us.

The Wise