Place Me

Put me somewhere soft and dark
a pocket, a closet

give me a few hours of silence, darkness, solitude
before letting me go

****

There is wet sand between the concrete floor and Everette's toes. Pushing up off of the floor offers reprieve to the ache in the shoulder joints that are screaming but makes his legs shake in fatigue. He rotates inhale shoulders, exhale feet. There is piss down his leg, it pools around his feet. Silence, not silence, the buzz of flies crawling up his leg and the slow creak of his braces counter his methodical breathing.

High up above the scaffolding there's a window that has been cracked open. The summer's been hot, dry and the scorch of the late afternoon sun does little move the stagnant air. Shoulders, feet Everette is focused on his movements. He is focused on his pain.

The small red dot of the video camera winks at him. This is real, he thinks, live action theatre. He begins to sink into his ankles, his shoulders wrenching open. Tongue over his lips, throat on fire, flies flies. He hadn't bargained for flies.

***