Where have my pills gone?
From my window perch I watched the sea of faces pass
The currents carried words, my ears would capture
“Has your daughter been fine? Has she found a husband?”
That tarot reader told fortunes on the corner
Flipping cards while eager eyes hoped futures were near
The alabaster alleyway so blank and faceless
Would not captivate my attention when the faces slept in beds
In alabaster houses; storage places for accumulated masks
When the sun set and the currents below slowed and stopped
I would lay motionless in my bed, the ceiling a canvas for thought
Expansive worlds I painted with half-true memories
Most of my memories were words I had lifted from the current
A long, fulfilling life I had not lived, I recalled and remembered
What a beautiful life this truly is!
Sleep would overcome my memory and I slipped away
The angry drunk below not existing
I dreamt the same dream every night, by choice or design
My traitorous memory recalling the same dream
There was Nothing
Then there was something
One single grain of sand suspended
The One sat in Nothing unable to move without Two
The One divided, became Two, and there was distance
Between the Two there was Something
The Two split and grew, split and moved
This mass of cells grew larger and larger, sweat beading
Breathing would hasten, sheets wet with perspiration
Shaken by the rampant movement, I would awaken
Startled and soaked in my own sweat
More than likely I had only dreamed this once
The sun would rise and the currents would begin to flow
To my window I returned, my pew warm from early sun
One morning I saw a woman carrying her young son
And I remembered my Mother swimming with us
Splashing and playing in the ocean’s swell
And for some reason I knew it was a lie
On a billboard across the street a new message
In earnest I waited as the man stapled our new gospel
Would it be some new coming attraction swelling the current?
Maybe some lost dog had forgotten the way back home
I imagined the Tarot reader already knew, her smile hidden
The man moved and the message was exposed
A blank sheet of paper stapled to thirty or forty previous
The story was beginning to get exciting now
What could they possibly follow with?
These beautiful times were made possible
By the signature of physicians and pharmacists
My opiate love affair, dancing
Tumbling down so comfortably
Soon my prescriptions would run out
Then what would I do?
I would feel the madness in my cheeks
It would hang with meat hooks
Pulling my smile down
And then there were no more
From my window I looked over the empty street
The moon like a spotlight revealing Nothing
I kneeled and begged for the masks to come back
Bustling and filling my ears with nonsense
I leaned, I fell from the window
I laid broken in the motionless currents
Lost and asleep