NIGHT SLICES
1:45 AM
Wake up.
Toothache is back.
Swollen face?
No health insurance.
Antibiotics.
Motrin.
Worry.
Fall asleep.
2:55 AM
Wake up.
Empty bed.
What are you doing?
Drinking Coca-Cola.
What are you watching?
Young Liz Taylor.
`
Go to sleep.
Look! Sal Mineo!
3:10 AM
What movie was that?
Giant.
Rock Hudson.
James Dean, Dennis Hopper, Sal Mineo. Everybody’s dead except Earl Holliman.
And Carroll Baker. She’s not dead.
But she’s fat. That counts as dead.
It does not! Go to sleep.
3:30 AM
Are you still up?
It’s going to be 107 degrees tomorrow.
No, it’s not!
You calling me a liar? 107 degrees!
You’re lying and you’re mean.
Oh, it’s my fault the earth is spinning closer to the sun?
No, but you don’t have to sound so pleased about it.
3:40 AM
Are you still up?
Yeah…can’t get comfortable.
Does your leg hurt?
It’s not a pain exactly, it’s more like an ache, you know when something is stiff, and you try to move it and…
Go to sleep.
Okay.
My face hurts.
107 degrees tomorrow.
Go to sleep.
© puma perl, 4/11/11
Poems, performances, photography, productions, stories, prose, music, journalism, band, songwriting, videos - surviving despite the odds. Is it all true? Yeah. Maybe. Sometimes. Mostly. Creation is transformative. I collaborate with amazing artists and musicians, primarily with my band, Puma Perl and Friends. Books available as well: knuckle tattoos, Belinda and Her Friends, Ruby True, Retrograde, Birthdays Before and After. Photo, Len DeLessio
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