Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Addiction

The rain patters blandly outside my window. The blank page stares back at me dolefully. Distant thunder as the 1 Train rumbles by. Sounds like the downtown.

I really ought to close the window in the kitchen.
 

I really ought to finish this stupid chapter.
 
Actually, I really ought to eat. It's nearly midnight and I haven't eaten since lunch. Even lunch I forced down over the complaints of my empty, twisted stomach.
 
But it's hard to eat.
 
It's hard to do anything pleasant, actually. Everything that I used to enjoy is... tainted. No, perhaps that's too strong a word. Drained. Drained is a better word.
 
Drained of color. Drained of warmth. Drained like I am. My mind, my body, my heart.
 
Ugh, so much melancholy and drama. I'm in danger of buying my own product - that heady miasma of self-loathing and self-pity. Uppers and downers. Emotional speedball. Eventually an overdose is inevitable.
 
I'm a peddler, a seller, of emotions and stories. I concoct my cocktails, my designer drugs, in the dingy meth-trailer of my heart from the bits and pieces of broken people that I pick up and sell as my own. People buy them. They're easy to buy. Five dollars at the mall gets you a softcover. Twelve for the hard stuff.
 
 
But that's getting off target. I am hungry. I am starving, actually. But I don't want to eat because I used to love eating but I loved it more with her. That's stupid. But it's true. I don't want to do anything good because it used to be better. I don't want to walk through sunlit parks, I don't want to listen to sweet music, I don't want to anything. It was so much better before. The high is faded.
 
Drab curtains, threadbare carpets, faded fluorescent lights.
 
 
Like every good sale, it started with a sample. Just some flirting, some fun, some dancing on the edge. I talked, she laughed, we drank. Buzz buzz buzz, everything electric and delicious.
 
 
When did it happen?
It was fine and under control. I could control it. I knew what I was getting into. I could stop whenever I wanted to. Really.
 
 
Damn, I could use a smoke. But I don't smoke. She smoked.
 
I'll have a drink instead. Just one more. Maybe.
 
 
The tv blares in the background. I just leave it on, now. Just like I leave on all the lights. I leave the computer on at night, an endlessly scrolling display. But the radio stays off.
 
Endless noise. Static. Time going by.
 
 
Nothing.
 
 
Nothing.
 
 
Nothing.
 
 
Damn, I really could use a smoke.
 
 
No, that's not what I need. I know what I need. The indicator light on my phone blinks. I flip the phone onto its face but I can still see that damned blinking light. Blink. Beat. Blink.
 
 
I get up and go to the kitchen. Dishes in the sink. The fridge whirring and clicking. Dim ugly light from within - vegetables, chicken that's about to go bad, half an onion wrapped in plastic. How long had that been there? A wilting bundle of collard greens. I should clean the fridge.
 
 
I pull out the water pitcher. Drink it straight. Cold water, icy, down my throat. A stray drop races a wet trail down my cheek. I wipe it away with the back of my hand. I feel the coldness of the water tracing the shape of my insides.
 
 
I put the pitcher back on the bottom shelf, next to the collard greens. It's almost empty. Well, there's enough left for later. I think.
 
Back to my chair. In my room. TV yapping. Lights lightly buzzing. The air is stale. I'm thinking too much - I need to stop.
 
 
Channel.
 
Channel.
 
 
Channel.
 
 
Buzzing.
 
 
It's my phone. Damn light blinking.
 
 
I shiver. My stomach is a knot, a noose, tightening. I'm cold but I'm hot, sweating. Palms damp. I want it so bad. I need it. But I won't do it. Not again.
 
 
Blink. Beat. Blink.
 
 
I pick up my phone. Stare at the insipid little light.
 
It wasn't supposed to be this way.
 
I put the phone down. It hurt too much. Or it should. It should hurt. I should be hurt and angry and sad. But I'm not. Just empty. Just drained.
 
I pace across the room. I don't know where I'm going. I grab my hair in my hands, pulling. Back and forth and back and forth. Buzzing again. No, I'm growling. I'm humming, trying not to think. Not to think about how good it was.
 
 
Don't think about the lips. Don't think about the warmth. Don't think about the smoothness of her skin. The turn of her smile. The slope of her neck.
 
 
Buzzing.
 
 
It's not worth it. It's never worth it. It's just a product. I can beat it. Mustn't buy it.
 
 
I pace. I need. I turn up the volume on the tv then I turn it down. Change the channels. I pick up a book but I can't read. It's late, I should sleep. But I can't. I'm awake. Or I'm not but I can't bear the idea of lying in bed, in the quiet, in my head.
 
 
Damn, I wonder what her brand of cigarettes tastes like.
 
 
When did I pick my phone up? I put it back down.
 
 
Across the room. Nothing there.
 
 
Back.
 
Why wasn't there anything good on tv?
 
I pick up the phone. I put it down.
 
 
Pace. Pace.
 
 
It's right there. Just right there. Just a taste. A message. See how she's doing. Just a little bit. I just need to get by. It was a long day, just a little bit is all I need.
 
 
No.
 
 
Yes.
 
 
Damnit.
 
I pick up my phone, I feel it in my hands, I know what to do, I know what it is. I can't. But just a little. It'll be ok. I pick up my needle and hold it over my arm, the screen still dark, I slide the point in, it's cold, press the power, press the plunger, heart beating, lighter, faster, waiting, hoping, craving, rushing.
Click.
 
"Hello?"
 
Damn. Feels so fine.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Three, Two, One.

I want to scream, I want to shout, I want to run away.
 I want to write but it’s been so long since I’ve written anything that the words aren’t coming out, the sentences aren’t forming. There is no rhyme, no rhythm, no … heart.
There is no there there. My fingers flow freely across the fucking keys but there is no new song there is no release. I’m writing like a robot reboot stuck in one spot too mute. Every word is agony tragedy that my voice is broken it’s a written catastrophe. I’m screaming on the page but no sound is coming out, just the hollow thump thump thumping of my thumb on the space bar, moving the cursor forward like so many broken promises, strung out, no scar. It’s a jumble, it’s a mess, but at the moment it’s my best. Like learning to breathe underwater my lungs are bursting in my chest, no vest, no rest, as I try to conquest my fears built up over the years into an unquenchable smoking fire that burns me from the inside out. So I’m throwing down the cigarette of self doubt and taking a nicorette, a move I only hope that I can live to regret. It’s time to break free from the me that I’ve come to be, the weaknesses and bleaknesses that I’ve come to believe. I need to breathe.
One
Two

Three. 

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Tonight

I see a sea of faces, people spaces, places where souls should dwell and
      hearts should linger
waiting for a spark to spark the light to light the night tonight
Yet alone a lonely longing look lingers as lyrics lisp low through
      the length of a person's
soul, singing, singeing, stringing things along,
singing slowly its soulful solo song
stop
the heart beats beat to the mournful melody of memories meant to be
but dreams that draw away as you wake, awake, aware, awash
in the golden glow of sunlight beaming streaming through the open
window
the eyes so wide to light bright inside the soul shut so tight
Would you dance this dance with me
tonight?

Thursday, June 11, 2009

When the Ears Begin to Whisper


Who listens when the ear begins to whisper
Who hears what the ear has to say
Who knows what the ear has to tell him
If all the ear has told him is lies all day
Who can gaze into the eyes and see what they are speaking
or touch the fingers and learn what they are seeking
Where then do the shoulders lean
or who will carry the weary feet
Who massages the weary hands
and where turns a cheek for warmth
Who will comfort the tear
Who has been wiped away?