the night before Prom
and I've partied all night long
with a long day ahead,
and my feet already dead
Sitting behind a cop in a red light
thinking to myself "Its 12:00 am,
past my curfew, under-age and
to top it off i forgot my license."
and as he sits in front of me
I realize our city patrol isn't that great
and maybe i should turn myself in
until the light turns green and he
speeds off leaving me an illegal ghost.
The surreal power of being unknown,
unmapped and undefinable in this situation
makes my heart ecstatic and restless
pushing down the pedal a little more,
wanting to speed past him at 120 mph,
windows down, stereo blasting, lights flashing,
arms flailing out the roof and feet on the wheel,
is almost too irresistible in my position.
But don't we all wish we could be this way?
As i continue along at the steady pace of 30 mph
I see turtles jogging past me, drunken snails
My eyes on an ever-fixed mark; a commitment.
At this time of night, green lights grow longer
while red become bright and yellow go unnoticed
And another, then another, green, black, white
police cars like zebra painted sharks in the streets
circling, searching, for the innocent and the guilty,
and I, somewhere in between the two, invisible
in their mists glide silently by in my camouflaged car
that blends in with the night sky, (Well, at least
if all the stars and headlights go out at once).
I have many of these long, tired nights
because I don't believe in coffee, only cookies.
Coffee was invented by someone so jittery
off their beverage they couldn't spell "cofe"
so they added too many extra letters,
and the person who discovered cookies
tasted something too delicious to have just one "o".
Besides, i get by with Gatorade and orange juice
just fine at 4:00 am when i have an essay due.
These are all the things i think about
when the mind is at a loss of thoughts and sleep
and the laughter has died down to a yawn
and all you want to do is go home in that bed
and be able to sleep without dreams,
in a distant, empty land,
of only rivers and cherry blossom trees,
and sleep there forever,
and never wake to the trials,
celebrations, and traumatizing occurrences
of tomorrow. and all the other
"important days of our lives"
that all end in tired nights. tired nights.
But isn't all you can wish for...
someone, some heat, some body
to rest with you on those tired, lonely nights.
