watch him and he swallows
five pills at once- little ones, big ones
a green one, a pretty pink one
2 white ones and a huge yellow transparent one
downs it with a some water from an old cup
he was downing whiskey from a couple hours ago
I say to him
hey! you shouldn’t take all those at once
they might get stuck in your windpipe or whatever pipe
it goes down to those mysterious regions
in your drainpipe or water pipe
or your peace pipe or half-pipe
what would you do then?
there’d be nobody here to slap you on the back
nobody here to call an ambulance
man, you’d just collapse and die
on that old yellowed linoleum
next to some Cheeze-balls you dropped last week
you don’t wanna go like that do ya?
he said “yeah, I’ve thought about that
but I’ve thought about this too
it’s all psychological, if I swallow them all at once
it’s like taking a vitamin and I’m ok with that
but if I’m taking one at a time
then I’d feel like a decrepit old man taking his meds
one after another after another after another
after another after another
and that would kill me a lot faster
you understand?”
