{"id":5934,"date":"2013-09-06T01:00:07","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T05:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/home\/?p=5934"},"modified":"2013-09-06T10:03:12","modified_gmt":"2013-09-06T14:03:12","slug":"santas-on-xanax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/santas-on-xanax\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa’s on Xanax"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SantaonXanax\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Santa\u2019s On Xanax<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sitting — toe deep — in the white-beach pseudo-snow, the tides
\ntying time into knots of irrelevancies . . . Is it January or June?
\nAnd where the hell is my phone?
\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SILENCE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\n[Head twitch. \u00a0Hand jerk.] No, wait! \u00a0I heard . . . something.
\nWas it a seagull or just another torturous shrapnel from Salvation\u2019s
\nbell? \u00a0[Blink, blink. \u00a0Blank] \u00a0Where am I? \u00a0Block it out. \u00a0Chant
\nbackwards: \u00a0No clock. \u00a0No calendar. \u00a0<\/i>No worries
\nabout gaining back those 50 pounds to fit into \u201cThe Suit.\u201d
\nCount the shells.
\n*****Calm.*****
\nCarve a reindeer print in the sand. \u00a0[Laugh out loud.] \u00a0That\u2019s hysterical!!
\n(They are soooo neurotic about getting sand in their tow.) \u00a0\u201cRooftops
\nto the rescue!\u201d [Clap-hand mouth = shut. \u00a0Squirrel swivel head = look.
\nDon\u2019t] Tell me how many days till I\u2019m back in Hell. \u00a0[Shake shake shake
\nthe beautiful Rx bottle. \u00a0Music to my ears.] \u00a0Whew! \u00a0Not just yet.
\nBack to basics: \u00a0oil or block?
\nIt\u2019s time, damn it, to count those little white four-scored pills . . .
\nToo many to see. \u00a0Too few to breathe.
\n\u201cScrew it!\u201d \u00a0Just swallow and wait [for]
\nanother dose to pull [me?] through
\nanother day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You Have the Right<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

they said, to stand your ground,<\/p>\n

to defend yourself on your own<\/p>\n

property.\u00a0 So she fired one warning<\/p>\n

shot over her abusive husband\u2019s head,<\/p>\n

hoping to save herself and her children<\/p>\n

from yet another beating.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You have the right<\/i>, the arresting officer said,<\/p>\n

to remain silent<\/i>, as he handcuffed her,<\/p>\n

put her in the back of his squad car.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They charged her with attempted murder,<\/p>\n

sentenced her to 20 years.\u00a0 This is Florida<\/i>,<\/p>\n

they laughed.\u00a0 You would have gone free<\/i><\/p>\n

if you\u2019d killed him.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Poetry Barbie<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

is off<\/p>\n

her meds again.\u00a0 They mess with her<\/p>\n

muse.\u00a0 She prefers the manic moodiness<\/p>\n

of creative productivity.\u00a0 Ken does<\/p>\n

not.\u00a0 He is hiding in the basement<\/p>\n

of their Dream House waiting for this<\/p>\n

latest nightmare to pass.\u00a0 Poor thing<\/i>,<\/p>\n

she laughs at his<\/p>\n

timidity, ponders the passivity<\/p>\n

of the image in question, then proceeds<\/p>\n

to commit the crime of commemoration:<\/p>\n

Her latest masterpiece<\/p>\n

begins . . .<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Electric Rain<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Purple drops echo shades of royalty.<\/p>\n

A dove cries<\/p>\n

in recognition.\u00a0 The scene is nothing<\/p>\n

if not shocking.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

A.J. Huffman has published five solo chapbooks and one joint chapbook through various small presses. Her sixth solo chapbook will be published in October by Writing Knights Press. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and the winner of the 2012 Promise of Light Haiku Contest. Her poetry, fiction, and haiku have appeared in hundreds of national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, Bone Orchard, EgoPHobia, Kritya, and Offerta Speciale, in which her work appeared in both English and Italian translation. She is also the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press. www.kindofahurricanepress.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sitting — toe deep — in the white-beach pseudo-snow, the tides tying time into knots of irrelevancies . . . Is it January or June? And where the hell is my phone?<\/p>\n

READ MORE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":6022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,218,219,199],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5934"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5934"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6031,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5934\/revisions\/6031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}