Women sit in a booth caked in grease
and overexposed skin, deepening reds
in the failing light.

Their hair is tangled,
they stare across the table with barely white
eyes, smile lines a vague
reminiscence of manners past.

The man's stomach rolls
across the narrow table,
pushing plates and clammy,
pop filled glass into a jammed heap,
yet there is little reflection to be seen.

I stand at attention,
mired with orders.

The smells crawl through my head
lingering long after the doors are locked.

I wish, I was okay with this.

Make my decisions
for I am on the wrong track.

A mind full of elisions
that gives nothing back.
A fearful dream

keeps me still, no wake.

Drifting in an ocean of appearances.