VITAMINS AND MINERALS

1. The Rooms Look Bad
2. The Man, So Stuck
3. He Wants to Move
4. He Takes a Nap
5. He Falls Away
6. He Sleeps Too Much
7. He Needs to Breathe
8. He Finds the Book
9. Just for Example
10. And So He Does
11. Just Follow Me
12. He Grabs Some Cake
13. It Comes to This
14. The Soul Seems Lost
15. Kick Ass


4.

So—
He takes a nap. He takes a nap.


When all else fails, he just lies down.
To find the pitch, he turns off the switch and the synthesasia of the whole damn town.

He takes a nap. He takes a nap.

He lies there in the darkness, finds it cold and most inviting.
He loves a place that’s dimly lit or might just have bad lighting.
He finds comfort in the silhouettes, the shadows, and the shade.
If the edge of night just might exist, then take him to its blade.
For the sharpness of the evening and the darkness that it brings
Takes away the aftertaste, the after-itch, the afterstings,
Curls him in a little ball, lying on his side.
Haven til the morning comes, twilight as his guide.

Thinks about the daylight and the rising of the sun
Can make him overheated, overtired, overdone.

He believes in destiny and the things that will go wrong.
So the shaking starts its shaking and the panic comes along.
And his racing heart begins his racing.
And his bracing thoughts begin their bracing.
And the two of them together form the strangest thing combined.
The mind feeds off the panic and the panic feeds the mind.
And they loop around together, give and take and take and give.
And they live the panic over and the panic just relives.
And it seems to last forever as the craze begins on high
From the hyperventilation to a slow and steady sigh.
But the slow and steady sigh really takes her sweet old time.
And just begins to settle down when he thinks he’s ‘bout to die.

So—

He takes a nap. He takes a nap.

03/19/2008

Author's Note: Vitamins and Minerals was written in June 2003. It was originally performed as a One-Man-Poetry-Show at One Arm Red Theatre in DUMBO, Brooklyn. You can read the poem in its entirety. Or broken up in 15 individual pieces.

Posted on 03/19/2008
Copyright © 2024 David Garner