How cruel to hate a fellow for his eye
to go the extent of disembowelment
for a veiled stare.
So many other flaws could
more meritously evoke evisceration.
One could easily suffer the pounding of
ten tell-tale hearts to rid the world of:
eyebrows that grow together
large pored noses
hairy ears
ragged fingernails
yellowed toenails and
gold colored teeth, to name a few.
I stand ready for the punishments that free
loved ones from flaws.
I could never understand slaying a nice
old man for such a minor infraction
when the world is filled with greater distractions
like this evening with Rudy in bed snoring (softly) again
and I had smoked too many cigarettes
and the street lights were too bright
and the bedroom was too cold and too hot
and no reasonably comfortable position could be found with or without pillow
and the digital clock hummed too loudly while the living room clock beat and chimed
and no matter which side my head was on sounds filled my ears and said
`don't sleep....don't sleep'
I thought seriously about cutting out his sinuses
and burying them beneath the floor boards.
Though I love him dearly and we have a no-wax floor.
I could live with the food caught between
his teeth, his cowlick, and even his penis
that hangs to the wrong side.
I could bear loud manly snores
or childlike sniffles.
`Rudy wake up! Demons get you when you sleep.'
He smiled at a freckle on my nose.
Visions of Vincent Price and
entombment within sheetrock walls
passed from the pit of my stomach to the
pendulum in my throat.
`shh-shh-shh,' he purred, `why can't ya sleep?'
And then I knew as I looked into his dark-
yes, Raven eyes-
In his arms I could fall to sleep
with or without snore.
`That coke musta been cut wit speed, you're all wired.'
he said in a velvet cat's voice
Again I looked to his eyes
Quoth those Ravens nevermore?
Well somedays you do,
some you don't,
and some just make you crazy.
Tomorrow I'll snip off Rudy's nose
but tonight I'll just be lazy.