A one act play

Setting: sunrise.

Pay close attention.

The night drains its wounds in-

to day. This is all you’ll get.

Blood red hue—sky blue.

Enter actors.

I lay in bed, wake up

exhausted. Sleep again.

Wake up one more time.

Draw the blinds: sunrise,

when night drains its wounds in-

to day. I believe I have a purpose here.

Two cups of coffee later and I’m

too caffeinated. The kind of caffeinated

that blurs your vision. I stand

in the living room stark naked,

take heavy rips of the bong: cough.

I believe I’ve been sent here

to decipher hieroglyphs. Etch meaning.

Etch meaning to add

or to take away. Why do I doubt myself?

I make cars move on command. I’m like

a traffic light. I take two nicotine pouches,

tuck ‘em above my teeth. What choice do I have?

I let things go. I let things run their course.

Caroline is singing in the shower.

I move without interruption, like space

between one day and the next,

I let the sky deepen its blue.

What choice do I have? I watch the sun

come up over the navy yard. Now the day is red

early like it’s still yesterday. I still smoke cigarettes

on the porch like it’s 1970. Caroline tells me

to take a shower, but I’m green and cool

like grass in spring. I sit down on the cord couch,

read Rexroth’s imitations of the Chinese: slim orange spine.

I have a long day of reading ahead. I’ve tried to be temporal

like Wendell Berry but he’s old. He must hate modernity.

What else is there for me to know? I watch the sun

come up over the navy yard. I’m still so young/

I’m still just sand. I’ve failed as a person. I’m okay

with that. I no longer want to be a person. I like ideas

for what they are: a reflection

in the mirror. I let things go.

I am a black tree withering away

while still being there. I am nature

plowing through itself with a tractor.

My mother calls to ask if I’m okay. I’m okay.

The rest of the day I sit down on the cord couch

and read poems about myself.

Noah Edgar is a born and bred yankee writing in Lexington, Kentucky. He is a Marine Corps infantry veteran. His work has previously won awards through the Oswald Creativity and Research Competition at the University of Kentucky and the King Library Press Broadside Contest.