Drew bought some spores some time ago,
Planted, waited and watched them grow,
He bruised their necks as he snapped them,
Dead stalks of celery entombed in tupperware.

Valerie called me again today,
Why don't you hang out anymore?
I pressed 'one', deleted the message,
Paid homage to shriveled sticks drying, dying.

Last night Tina was in Drew's bed,
But today her purse lays there instead,
She's gone, and left it by accident,
But she's not getting anything out of us.

I slept on the couch last night alone,
But I could hear them through the thin wall,
It's pointless, but I sat smiling in the dark,
And let their rhythm lull me to sleep.

For three nights she's slept with us,
Twice with Drew, once with me on the couch,
There's nothing in her purse, we already checked,
Both of us, valueless- fuck this.

She has been coming to visit around eight,
So I get the peanut butter at six o'clock,
And Drew gets the box, and sits, and opens it,
We lather each stalk in globs of brown goo.

Drew is angry that we got the crunchy,
Then angrier that I'm not listening,
As I twirl a stem slowly in front of my face,
Coated in brown swirls, a beaten wife in pearls.

The peanut butter sits heavy on my tongue,
As my teeth grind, grind to a pulp,
This thick rubber band in my mouth,
Until the crunchy clump slides down my throat.

I watch Drew as he chews, as he stares blankly,
He told me earlier not to think when I chew,
Not to dwell at a time like this,
Don't let it sit in your sad stomach.

But I can't help Tina's purse, Valerie's call,
Drew's blank stare or the jar on the floor,
I commit the cardinal sin of 'shrooming,
As my thoughts coil tightly around my body.

They wrap so tightly against my skin,
They squeeze my legs and arms so hard,
I feel the sweat drip out of my body,
And know this trip is my very last.

=====================
"Yet I enjoy the company of my talent,
And there great Caesar's writ can never run.
Let him, who will, destroy me by a swordthrust,
Yet shall my fame survive when life is done."
- (iii. 7.43-50) Tristia
Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid)
=====================

Flash,..(Dorm room at the University)
Take,..(Simple meal of celery and peanut butter)
Pan left,..(Female guest,..wanted,..unwanted?)
Pan right,..(contemplating the issues)

Outcome,..(What the hell,..one more go then I'm done with it!)

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence. Douglass, Frederick