Start with a comfortable room, perhaps
a warm kitchen, then add something odd,
a clock running backwards, a drawer
with a chicken bone wired as a pull.

Mix in a likable character, but make them
a victim, give them a flaw or an ailment,
a teacher who drags a club foot, or
a salesman who nervously stutters.

Make them an underdog, cause the reader
to want them to win when their life is disaster,
then dangle a carrot, give everyone hope,
some kind of wish, like an Angel.

Then when everything is covered in sunlight,
like the story was proof read by Hallmark,
pull out the rug by sending in locusts,
have them dig their own grave,

or convince the poor reader nothing is real,
that the story is no more than a dream
with one dragging foot and a chicken bone
wired as a drawer pull.