Popsicle lick & radiation drip
& ugly shoes nobody
should be wearing. I’m tired
some days. On Wednesdays
we watch reruns of Judge
Judy. I like Fridays. Clorox
smells & Montel’s on TV
from nine to ten. (Did you even
know he’s still got a show?) Don’t
worry. No, don’t come home
on my account. Count the days
with me. Five, four, three
sessions left. If Doc orders
another round, don’t let my husband
talk me down. I just can’t take
ugly shoes & dinner without cake
& days without Diet Coke.
Don’t let me bore you. Get off
the phone. Go dancing & drink
one for me. Or ten. I miss gin. I miss
you & pretty shoes & Diet Coke.
D. Gilson is the author of I Will Say This Exactly One Time: Essays (Sibling Rivalry, 2015); Crush, with Will Stockton (Punctum Books, 2014); Brit Lit (Sibling Rivalry, 2013); and Catch & Release (2012), winner of the Robin Becker Prize. He is an Assistant Professor of English at Texas Tech University, and his work has appeared in Threepenny Review, POETRY, and The Rumpus.
