“Let’s have a drink,” you tell me,
filling my phone screen with your wine bottle.
“Let’s make tonight an extra special cheat night. We crohnies, cancer chicks—”
“Let’s make tonight an extra special cheat night. We crohnies, cancer chicks—”
“Didn’t
we say our collective name would be an argument of sick girls?
“Fine.
Whatever. Our argument of sick girls needs a day, a night, or a handful of
minutes free of gut rules.”
“We
have those,” I remind you. “You sipped rosé for your birthday and I nibbled
coconut cake for mine.” My mouth waters at the memory. And my stomach turns
into a grumbling collection of cowering knots. “Just one day is enough for me.”
“One day isn’t fair. One day is a cage. I won’t stand for just one day. Tonight, my tongue will bathe in the blood of grapes.”
I don’t try to change your mind—I see that wildest of blazes in your eyes—and when you call me later hurling wails, when you curse the unfairness of it all, I don’t need to nag about how the spirits of grapes pour no mercy on the likes of us; you’ve learned.
Nature finds balance—
swallowing screams for dinner
will erupt nightmares.
“One day isn’t fair. One day is a cage. I won’t stand for just one day. Tonight, my tongue will bathe in the blood of grapes.”
I don’t try to change your mind—I see that wildest of blazes in your eyes—and when you call me later hurling wails, when you curse the unfairness of it all, I don’t need to nag about how the spirits of grapes pour no mercy on the likes of us; you’ve learned.
Nature finds balance—
swallowing screams for dinner
will erupt nightmares.
the wee notes…
- crohnie is an informal name for
someone with Crohn’s disease
- partly inspired by the phrase, “I
swallow screams for dinner”, by C. Sandlin
- for Poets and Storytellers United (Weekly Scribblings #33: “swallow screams for dinner”)
