it is 2:23 am
the fan is set on high, despite the fact that the weather outside is -20°
fans are good for these sorts of things
white noise
drowning out the silence
the thoughts the beer brings

thoughts of fools in love in coffee shops
and cynics in tears in basement rooms
and once brave men in coffins

the dog chews on a rawhide bone

and I unbraid my hair
untangling each knot with trembling fingers

I undress slowly
removing each piece of clothing like a memory

I put on that shirt I bought for you

I crawl into bed
smearing plum lips and black eyes on an off-white pillowcase

and I think of once great loves of cynics
I think of coffins
I think of you in light blue

Old Ray gets up this morning
feeling a little bit let-me- fix-the-world
so he turns to his wife Old Mary
who’s reading the news in her iPad
and he resurrects his suspicion
she’s gone deaf recently

So he stands to her right and calls out her name
No answer
So he stands to her left and calls out her name
No answer
So he goes behind her and shouts out her name
and Mary, without looking up, says calmly:
“For the third and last time, Ray -
what do you want?”

And Ray
who has heard no answer thrice
thinks to himself:
*Poor Old Mary,
after all these years,
she’s indeed lost her hearing

U no, eat sins two mee,
u guise knead
two loose wait
sew hear, aye woosh
two
offal ewe sum add vice

Ewe can star art
**** ditto menation
aunt u knead too exorcise
Moove eat, keep mooving
moove mulch;  doe nut ****
down two mulch, move you’re *****
inn smell poorshuns
Ant walk two da shups
in stayed off you sing da carr

Dee impotent ding
hiss da wheel
four wear they’re’s
a wheel, they’re’s all weighs
a weigh
goad lick
loose wait
anne stain hell tea