Take the path for cocaine & Plath
i left her
apartment
with nowhere
to be
and no home
to hurry to.
her
advertising job kept
the work-shift
late
and the wake
up calls
early.
in between i
would show up
on her
Eastside
apartment
doorstep
with a bottle
of wine.
she’s been
with people
i know,
people
way cooler
than me
but I had an
advantage-
i knew their
strategies.
I’d seen
them at work,
and I
remembered the times
when she was
bored
and
i remembered
how much
she liked
danger
what could
stand me out
from the
rest?
... cocaine
i have a
friend in newark
she squares
up
with a guy.
his family
ships the
good stuff
in through
some fish market or
he’s a port
authority cop.
the nights we
got honest
enough to share
dealers our
noses
were bleeding
and the dog
tried stopping
us before
our
heartbeats caused seismic shifts
-the details come and go (mostly go)
but i crossed
the river to jersey,
got the candy
then took the
train underwater
and
headed back
uptown
she was happy
to see me.
she went to
the bathroom
i pulled
a mirror off
the wall
and cut two
lines. i
heard the shower
water go on.
i made
the lines
a little
bigger.
i
could smell
chemical
fruit coming
from under
the bathroom door.
i shaped
each line
into
3 quarters of
a
heart. They
were perfect.
with a space
big enough
to
start
and
end
without
messing up
the powder
she came out
and looked
at my
creation.
“what
is
that?”
“cocaine”
“I don’t want
any cocaine. Why am i looking
at cocaine?”
“What says I love you
like our noses
sharing
a dollar bill?”
she was
angry.
i’d had her
all
wrong. i went
for a walk
while she
calmed
down.
how could i
get
this girl
to fall for
me?
i looked for
a park.
i was going
to find a dog park
so i could
steal
her a puppy,
but
a used book
store
had a cart
out on the
sidewalk.
i wanted to
read something
about failure
but
i didn’t.
i bought a
copy of
the sun also
rises- for me
and something
by sylvia plath- for her
she opened
the door on the first knock
i handed her
both books.
“why?” she
asked.
“i want to build a library with you”
we ate pho
and used
our
first two
books as coasters
i
don’t
know
if she fell in love with me that night,
but i’m pretty
sure
she will
Sarah Jean Alexander lives in Brooklyn, NY Scott Laudati also lives in Brooklyn, NY
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