Bedtime Stories

by Cara Lee

upside down dreams of alien lands

aliens run fierce across the land
of pale areolas blowing steam
filled with the screams of generations of men who have tried
to silence the witches
that now sail away
into sunsets and daydream lovers tossing and turning
smashing bottles against each other red octobers and honey weiss
call me honey
call me sweetie
call me baby
and i’ll show you how tears are made somewhere between pain and joy
of losing another grain
of that awful brain
setting right to wrong
until the jazz cools
and the bladders are emptied
and we can all go to sleep
in beds warmed by our own reflections

drinking yourself to sleep

you rolled off the bed
and i forgot to catch you
seem to always be forgetting
but remembering to pop open
another beer
throwing the caps like confetti
until drowning in my celebration
as you still lay on the floor
pretending to recover
as the bitch finds more covers
to keep her heart warm
when your heart could’ve done the trick instead she burps alone
picking at her face
layer by layer
searching for the one
that will be beautiful
peeling scabs like oranges
the raw stinging flesh of ego
endless until all that’s left
is skull and bone and beer belly

dreams etched out in black

somewhere among these words seemed to have forgotten it somewhere between my breasts and dried out fingertips

rubbed raw and red
breaking off more skin
as i caress black ink
into scorching wounds grasping at straws and stories writing lines up nostrils across the bodies of lovers and empty trash cans
filled with forgotten condoms and memories
unprotected hearts that forgot to read the label
perhaps if we did
we wouldn’t have left
the moral of this story
behind and woken up
still dreaming