"...and many more"

“...and many more”

At 10:32 on the morning

of his 46th birthday he woke up

after five hours and twelve minutes of unsatisfying slumber

to sprays of invasive sunlight

visiting him uninvited

through spindly blinds

derelict in their duty to keep him undisturbed.

Already his sinuses were celebrating with the non-returnable gift

of honking cold slimy mucus.

With a baritone groan,

he nudged his naked gym-neglected dad body

settled by a colony of wiry silver chest hairs and pubes

off the mattress where

he chain-munches cheese curls and sleeps solo.

After careening into the kitchen in a contact lens-less blur,

he extracted a can of diet cola

deserted by Sheila when

she'd given him the heave-ho back in August

from the top shelf of the mini-fridge

and tenderly attended an arid palate

the way he might feed a dachshund

if only he had a pet.

—Adrian Slonaker

Adrian Slonaker works as a copywriter and copy editor in St. John’s,

Newfoundland, Canada. Adrian’s work has appeared in Aberration Labyrinth, Squawk Black, The Bohemyth, Queen’s Mob’s Tea House, Pangolin Review and others.

#AdrianSlonaker