otto

otto built a smaller heart right outside of his heart

so that pets could live there.

otto had four pets, one for each letter of his father's name,

which was otto.

each day he prepared the same smelly cars to sell to new smelly people.

they'd speed out, passing to the left of the miniature heart

otto didn't think about cars hitting his pets

otto thought about the moment when his pets would be all standing in a line

like some planets or prostitutes

he would send one bullet careening through. the flesh of each pet would step aside tenderly, ringing
like bars of a xylophone, or some equivalent that was tuned to an eastern scale

it wouldn't sound great to the smelly people 'cause they're not used to non-western music and maybe they would consider asking why otto killed those pets

but they can't really relate to non-western music
and he doesn't really know why he killed those pets