The Apartment Mark
Barrett
Slanted ceilings and beige walls catch the shadows and hold casting images
of objects in
Grinning daydreams shape
two or three times shift before
Nodding off, I am startled awake by I sit up and breathe deeply, blinking eyes wide and
them
captive,
their actual size.
my tired eyes.
a distant,
hacking cough.
rapidly,
willing dried contact lenses to adhere to pinhole pupils as
I
attempt to stare off into the foggy reality of
The daydreams metamorphose grins to mocking sneers. Covering
my eyes
my perceptions.
into nightmares,
with the crook of
my elbow,
wash over and the choking, desperate ambiance of this apartment. Dark and hazy. I
try to escape the turbulent waves of paranoia that
It is filled
me
with myriad dreams and ambitions,
put on hold for one lost weekend.
So much potential floating out of a single barred sliding
window and
under the door
in search of the thin sliver of fading,
which It
casts
its life
force
down
brown-yellow
light
the dull, ambiguously colored hallway.
projects a message of hope,
dimly pleading for someone to change the bulb before
it
dies out
and disappears into obsolescence.
photo by Joel Hughes 11
