The Bloodletting
Lauren Yates
In an effort to get me to move on, they have given me
until midnight to get him out of my system.
This is the entire pack of cigarettes, and I am to
chain-smoke each one, until I never want to smoke again.
What they don’t know is that I swore off alcohol
after my worst and only hangover--my tolerance
weakened by the antidepressants--but I drank
margaritas and sangria just last week.
When the clock strikes 11:58, I speak as quickly
as possible, trying to get it all out before it is too late,
like Disney DVDs before they go into the vault.
At 11:59, they tell me to keep going, wiping tears
from their eyes. “You’re from California,” they say.
“We’ll give you until midnight Pacific Time.”
Lauren Yates
In an effort to get me to move on, they have given me
until midnight to get him out of my system.
This is the entire pack of cigarettes, and I am to
chain-smoke each one, until I never want to smoke again.
What they don’t know is that I swore off alcohol
after my worst and only hangover--my tolerance
weakened by the antidepressants--but I drank
margaritas and sangria just last week.
When the clock strikes 11:58, I speak as quickly
as possible, trying to get it all out before it is too late,
like Disney DVDs before they go into the vault.
At 11:59, they tell me to keep going, wiping tears
from their eyes. “You’re from California,” they say.
“We’ll give you until midnight Pacific Time.”
