sweat drips down my face,
the floor swims beneath me
and smoke ribbons out of my mouth and nose.
mid-summer in an Arabic bar
with some ******* touching the dancer all over
and saying "*******" over and over again.

he stares at her hips.

the mirror is on one side of me,
and one half of a pair of speakers is beside
my ear.
it's gigantic.

it blares music that my friend tells
me is from some new Bollywood movie.
two hands grab mine and i'm up.
one link in a circle, dancing a
Middle-Eastern two-step that's only slightly
familiar.

faces come in and out of my line of sight.
i recognize none
and feel as if i'm in a Salman Rushdie novel.
maybe i'm Haroun, in a new place with a blue genie
saving a sea of stories, a princess, a land, and my father.
but then again, maybe not.

i would never save my father.

i spin, spin, spin
until i can't see straight.

i wake the next morning on the belly
dancers couch.
my friends are having coffee with her
and discussing whether or not to
take me to the hospital.

Nadia found some blow in my pocket
and flushed it down the toilet.
she found *** in the other and put it back.

they had decided to let me sleep
and from then on call me "American Dream."