There is a wind that blows Sherrilee into the middle of the road. A bus of Chinese tourists drives past curving like a rib around an iron lung. Sherrilee is an iron lung. She watches the mental patients get out of the cold. THORAZINE, FLUOXETINE, LITHIUM are their names and each one wears a T-shirt that reads "I burn faster than your cooking"
There is a slow rain of silt and sawdust over the city and partially fossilized roots hang from the sky. Sherrilee has a furrowed brow as she walks down the avenue towards a dinosaur powered home BURN TYRRANOSAURUS! BURN RAPTOR! RAPTOR!
Therein stands a man with a tear tattooed under his left eye, "Baby, hey, Sherry, you wanna suck my cock? I'll drink you up Sherry, I'll cook with you and clean under your nails." Sherrilee! Are you in love? The man walks towards her, his hands on her collar bone tracing down a rib, curving like that feeling he gets when he says to himself,
"I, the man with teardrop tattoo am thinking about what I am doing and feel nothing."
The sidewalk is cracked and she steps over each fissure thinking about witchcraft. There is no doubt that one day she will be burnt at the stake, but even fire wont stop that tug in her gut for MORE MORE! She asks the kindest looking mental patient where he got his T-shirt. He is an army cadet with a pilot's face, eyes clouded and sparrows erupting from his skull. Some die and lie still on his naked scalp, falling slowly onto his shoulders and then to the ground, making gentle sounds, like punching a pillow, on impact. He doesn't know where you can buy a T-shirt, he says, it's a side effect of the LITHIUM he takes. LITHIUM, from the beginning of time! LITHIUM, to keep YOU on the level!
The men who you fuck, Sherrilee, are beautiful and hidden up ladders that take you to a light absent place no one can ever see. They have fingers of anti matter that devour you, and whatever else passes up the rungs, like: angels, dollar bills, angels etc. Angels, they pull your hair. It's the man with the tear drop tattoo you want, he is nothing to climb and once on top you can see his eyes, these other men have oil spots for eyes. They dream of underground tunnels, of hydroponic gardens filled with flowers that stretch towards fluorescent lights and tubers growing in the ceiling. But you, Sherrilee, want to see the sun when it all ends. You want to hold the man you love and take your FLUOXETINE so you can wear the T-Shirt "I burn faster than your cooking!" And at 11:12 it will cling to your charred body after the police officers, students, doctors, janitors and maniacs have looked at the sky and been blinded for one moment, a supernova shaped scar on their retinas.
"I want to suck your cock", said Sherrilee.
A contest entry
- prewrites. by Melissa Gayle.
600 points, ended May 18, 2008, 8 entries
Honorable mention
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - The End Of The World by abyssalchainsaw.
330 points, ended May 16, 2008, 10 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Comments
1 - 7 of 7
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Alright, I think you need to break it up a bit more. The disjointed lines threw me at first, it seemed like there was supposed to be a space...but not?
Sherry and the cock man, really interesting byplay there - its like a little side trip to the rest of the write.
Really strong images here and emotion, it leaves the reader slightly rattled as if we are on lithium ourselves. Almost like an out of body play to it.
Really strong feel to this.
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This great read can mean so much more than any one reader can see.Imagery was very nice, and well described.
Thanks for entering
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i have no idea what it's about other than the sinking gut tug i get when i think about the apocalypse. thanks for commenting.
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Woo, that was a ride, haha. Amazing descriptions; I love how you word things. It's really unique and attention-grabbing. I usually groan with long writes, but I didn't even notice how long it was after I started reading. The part about "partially fossilized roots hang from the sky" was really beautiful. Lovely write
Jeanette*~
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well shit..
kinda made my stomach knot
and jampacked with images
i love the apocolyptic feel of this.
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a friend of mine is a bit of an apocalypse theorist so i get inspiration from his weird rants on the end of the world.
and thanks! and hope the stomach knotting was in a good way.
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oh shit, that ending was totally not expected!
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