One evening in early November
I followed a young woman to the virtual end
of a city cul-de-sac
as autumn leaves
spiraled
downward
from neighborhood sycamores
light fragmentations
dimmed gradually to
nighttime shadows
I waited and watched
while
she mechanically
dug keys from
a designer purse
placing a
manila envelope
between her lips
she entered into an
existential realm
of artificial domestication.
Second time I saw Rikki
was in a psych-ward cafeteria
on the outskirt
of a quaint residential town
glassy eyed
retrieving generic cornflakes
from a plexiglas receptacle
Rikki sold me pills at a neighborhood tavern
one night in early September
on Summer's marsupial cusp
days grew dark
earlier
as light in peoples eyes
flicker then wither
Rikki abruptly died of a brain aneurysm
on the soiled streets of Kensington
the soul from her body
fell
as the same leaves of the
neighborhood trees
outside the local bar
she sold me
pills
on the
quaint county outskirt of
a residential town
I got sent home early that day
from a minimal paying job
opened a refrigerator door
inside my drab efficiency
finding nothing
I retrieved a bottle
of non-narcotic anxiety medicine
from a cabinet
above my bathroom sink
I downed them all
with 20 ounces of lukewarm beer
from the prior evening
I made a telephone call
removed my belt and
sauntered down the hallway
to my apartment vestibule
and
waited for a
ride back to the psych ward
