Monthly Archives: April 2006

Haiku

Mattress shopping
Home-made chapstick (a rolled piece of cardboard with Vaseline)
Jessica Simpson

Sinister amusement park

I’m walking around a sinister indoor amusement park with a man I’m dating. It’s like the Manhattan Mall or the Skyway Theater in Minneapolis. It has red and orange carpet. There’s a movie theater that’s on a higher floor and we need to take an elevator to get there. I have the feeling that it’s dangerous, sleazy. There are tourists trying to find their way around.

We walk among the rides and talk about our relationship. He’s distant and I question to myself what I want to get out of the relationship and what I expect to get. I feel uncomfortable about drugs, like maybe he’s smoking pot.

We walk back to the entrance. I go digging through a pile of trash and find a beautiful wrought iron Christmas tree. I have to brush my teeth and I go walking through the park to find a drinking fountain. When I find one, I let a family with kids go before me, and then other people in line go in front of me too, and I’m annoyed at their presumptiveness.

On the way back to the man I run into Harry. I recognize his eyes. We hug and he seems happy to see me, and I tell him I’ve missed him.

Rich man’s house

I’m waiting with a rich man and my mother for admission to something. The man is a business executive my mother knows. I’m staying in the man’s house. Things are set so I can’t turn any lights on. I go to the light switches and there’s lots of them, but they don’t work.

He has three dogs. The dogs are held inside wooden boxes, all enclosed. The small dog I can get out but the larger dogs are trapped inside. I’m worried about them because I think I’m supposed to take care of them.

I’m supposed to go to an event with the man, my mother and father, and Friedman, but I oversleep.