Falling Asleep in a Stranger's Bathtub

There ain’t nothing Pleasant in this   Life—a death industry Of skullduggering   Simpletons & fat Cat ass scratchers.   I don’t care if you suppose That all this scar-faced   Prettiness is good for Someone. Whoopee!   Someone’s chest is Getting hairier. Each day   A sunset of painkillers & at midnight you feel   As if your sleeping cap’s Been nailed to your head   With lightning. Just Like you, I’m afraid   To close my eyes— Surer than shit that   If I’m lucky enough to wake My limbs will all be gone.

 
Alex Lemon

Alex Lemon is the author of Happy: A Memoir and three collections of poetry: Mosquito, Hallelujah Blackout, and Fancy Beasts. The Wish Book is forthcoming from Milkweed Editions. He lives in Ft. Worth, Texas, and teaches at TCU.

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Watching How with Long Hair I Am Accepted by the Nevada Four