Drew Pisarra: Asleep Bathed in White Noise

Photo: Joanna C. Valente

Selenium

You resemble a Ken doll who’s lost his tan,

a man-sized toy with unblinking fish eyes

that stare at your ceiling’s unmoving fan.

Our breeze has failed to materialize

so we rest in smoke exhaled from a joint,

our bodies in clam sauce, our needs unmet.  

I, like you, am wondering what’s the point

Unlike you, I’m pondering whether to get

a taxi to take me home or to fall

asleep bathed in white noise from your TV

set which is mounted on the bedroom wall.

The station’s off air. The remote, unseen.

I have fallen asleep not wanting to;

alone, untouched, as I dream of the moon.

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Drew Pisarra once toured his monologues around the country and even had a ventriloquist act but has since retired from the world of dummies. His short story collection Publick Spanking was published by Future Tense some time ago. More recently as part of the installation art duo Saint Flashlight (with Molly Gross), he’s been finding inventive ways to get poetry into public spaces.