wince in pain,
sit up
accept the fact that I'm not sleeping
flick the little light on
find some way to pass the time
dog-ear the page of a good book,
do some writing
some more reading
kiss Joyce upon his eyelids
tuck him back in for the night
he'll dream of many things,
write some down
they'll make him famous
but he could never dream up you
you wouldn't make sense at the time:
kid in pink KD 11s
with a 20 pc McNugget
Section 8 Projects, Atlanta
age 16, 5 foot 9
in the backseat of a Charger,
'cause your brother's here for Christmas
getting hotboxed secondhand
'cause you just needed a ride
peering straight down at your phone
with your knees wedged to your chest
and that years-old sense of anger
floating right behind your eyes…
reading a Google AI overview
of some bullshit called "Ulysses"
for a class you gotta pass
to graduate on time
graduate on time,
graduate on time,
graduate on time,
just gotta graduate on time.
