Valium

First published in The Battered Suitcase, Spring 2011, Volume 3, Issue 4

they all need something
now
desperately
pieces of me

resolve.

I can do this for love
(with coffee, Prozac and wine)

beautiful faces
give me glow
passion
(resentment)

pure hearts
give me love
life
(guilt and shame)

breathe.

I can do this for love
(with coffee, Prozac and wine)

oh shut up
so you’re better than me
so you don’t yell
(or scream sometimes)
so you do it
without coffee, Prozac and wine

fine.

I’ll keep mine
my coffee
my prozac
my wine

sigh.

and she thought I was joking
(but I wasn’t joking)
when I told her
I’d have her valium
just
you know
only
if she wasn’t going to use it