Crank (Crank 1)

of my bed, I didn’t have to wear

jeans or jammies or even panties.

Naked, in that cool tangle of cotton

sheets, I felt myself slip far, far away,

deep beneath an indigo ocean. Down, down,

into a silent, lightless land, and there, in the darkness

I found my Adam.

Funny thing, your brain,

how it always functions on one

level or another. How, even stuck in

some sort of subconscious limbo, it works

your lungs, your muscle twitches, your heart;

in fact, in symphony with your heart, allowing it

to feel love. Pain. Jealousy. Guilt. I wonder if it’s the

same for people, lost in comas. Is there really such a thing

as brain death?

Silence

shook me awake.

I groped into

consciousness

room dark,

blinds closed,

shadows

undulating in

air-conditioned

waves.

Midday,

I thought, house

emptied

of people,