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My cat drinks water    W               out of the sink 

next to a pile                  h              of bronze bullets & 

a turned-over bottle         a            of handsoap. 

                                        t

The sun is on                      T         vacation for the night,

the moon, well,                  o          it just beams 

through the window          m          as if it were crowning me;
                                      o

as if, yes, tomorrow          r           's noonday light

will soon be                        r         a cranium

fit for a king.                         o

                                             w

It's nearly                           B         one o'clock

in the scorning                  r            & I'm thinking

of nineteen eighty-eight       i          with sweaty palms

                                           n

as if I could be                   g         six years

-old all over again            s           mirroring              
a moment                   I                 a time
                               s

where                  N                     even at this hour

I long for                o                   replenishing
the years gone by.     n                 Thirty 

                                   e

approaches            O                  quicker than
a Hello.                     f                Are the neighbors
as anxious as I?          M             No,
                                     y
they sleep                W               & await their daily

shifts, they drift           o              & await their next 

ship                              r             as I sink lower,
                                       r

lower into an undertow,      y       as if to mimick
the doomed Titanic,                   as if Possibility
were nothing more                      than a bank statement, 

as if Optimism clung                    to the carpet
like velcro,                                  where I flip through 

a worn diary                               of scribbled text,

taking it all in.