Gravity is Unkind Today

Infernal ringing shatters sleep and dreams
As a rock would shatter a windowpane.
My consciousness is a cold thing
Who turned off the heat?
Fall is here and I'm falling out of bed.

*
Gravity is unkind today.

*
Hit the snooze alarm and snooze and wait
Until the light comes on in the hallway
Parents awake.
Heavy footsteps fall in the hall as
My alarm rings frantically:
Six AM. School starts soon.

*
Light. Then clothes. Then sustenance.
My everyday routine.
I walk down the stairs, fourteen steps
To the kitchen
to the cupboard where my breakfast waits.
Rice Krispies and tea for me please.
Who hid the sugar?

*
Why can I always find vanilla extract
When I'm looking for the sugar?
And always find sugar
When looking for vanilla extract?

*
All your baking soda are belong to us.

*
Food is obtained and consumed.
Up the stairs again.

*
Fourteen silver bracelets on my desk
(Fourteen rings to rule the world?)
Grown cold over the heatless night.
Fourteen bracelets, one by one they slip
From my hands as my half-awake grip
fails me.

*
Gravity is unkind today.

*
I really should clean this room.
But the mess reflects my existance.
This Is My Space.
Exclusive Della Club. No Boys Allowed, 'cause
Boys have cooties.

*
Gravity is unkind today

And my sister dropped a glass.
Freeze frame, bullet time, and watch it hit the floor
Watch the fissures creep through the glass
Watch the shards separate
Watch the broken pieces cover the floor to be stepped on
By unwary feet.
Watch the parents yell. Again.

So music. Drown out the words
Drown out the yelling voices
Drown out their anger
Redirect their thoughts through sound.

*
"Right on time!/ Will you stay/ through the pouring rain?"

*
I love the rain.
Does it hurt when it hits the ground?
As the droplets shatter into nothingness
Like the shards of the glass my sister dropped?
The song is blue-green with question.

*
What's my question?
Should I take the red or the blue pill?

*
Snap out of it.
Gotta get ready to go.
Pack up the backpack and get back down
The fourteen steps to the living room.

*
And there goes my binder.

*
Ah, gravity is unkind today.