"View from a Hospital Room Doorway" by Michael Gebelein

 

a door opened

and the room was cold

you were sleeping

breathing loudly

legs twitching

your hand moved to your face

and back down again to your side

like you were grasping for something

that wasn’t there anymore. 

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"The Fortune Teller, Miami Beach, Fla." by Michael Gebelein

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I was on a beach in Miami with two beautiful girls.

they were both topless and, even though I wasn’t sleeping with either one,

I considered myself the luckiest son of a bitch on that stretch of sand

and as we were lying there, joking and laughing,

an old woman, a fortune-teller, walked up to us.

she looked me in the eye and asked if I wanted my fortune told,

but before I could send her on her way she told me

that I looked happy but really I was very sad,

that something was broken inside of me.

I laughed and said that must be true for almost everyone.

and one of the girls touched my arm and

kissed me on the cheek and told me

that no, it’s not true for almost everyone,

that there are people in this world who are content,

easy-going, satisfied with the way things are, but

that there weren’t any of them on that stretch of beach that day. 

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