Sometimes

Sometimes work will exist.

(Being in high school is hard work, thought the cactus.)

(It looked out the window at the street and saw the cars honking by. It concentrated very hard on its spines and tried to gain sensation in them. The cactus had a primitive but persistent belief that if it could gain more sensation in its spines it would be able to move around.)

(The cactus sneezed. Bug, thought the cactus.)

(I am sick from all the hard work I am doing to fit in in high school, thought the cactus. I wish I could just be in college already. I am sick because I am trying to maintain a set of difficult friends while still acheiving enough to get accepted into Johns Hopkins University.)

(The cactus had a dream, a goal. The dream, the goal was to go to Johns Hopkins University and study astrophysics with a minor in mechanical engineering. The cactus loved to gaze at the stars alone at night.)

(It watched the sun set. There were beautiful fragile tinted clouds in the sky. The cactus watched for stars emerging in the atmosphere. An ambulance honked by and the lights from the ambulance disrupted the pretty scene a little. The cactus felt disappointed in its community.)

Sometimes a community will exist.

you are vegan and it is disorienting

you came over and we made zucchini.
you are vegan and it is disorienting.
you steamed the zucchini and it was green and soft.
i looked at you and your hair was very yellow and soft.
i looked at the clock and it was two-twenty-eight.
you were going to leave at five.
i felt uncomfortable because there were leftover meatballs in the fridge and also turkey and skinless boneless chicken breasts and milk and cheese and butter.
i did not feel ashamed of my meat and dairy products but i wanted to hide them from you.
you drank orange juice and talked about your ant farm.
i was bored and wanted to fuck on the kitchen counter.
we added paprika to the zucchini.
we added raw cauliflower sprigs.
i was glad i had bought vegetables.
you had brought a thing of yeast.
my kitchen was very bright and un-mysterious.
your skin gleamed and your eyes drooped.
i wondered if you would look different if you were not vegan.
you said that last night you had slept for fourteen hours.
you said you had found a pager and you wanted to page me.
i told you i would make you a mixtape.
we ate the vegetables and they had turned out okay and a little mushy.
we went to my computer and looked at my songs.
i made you a mixtape with a lot of classical spanish music on it.
i drew flowers on the mixtape with a thin-tipped sharpie.
i looked at your bony toes.