8:00AMSaterdayMorningLongsDrugs

8:00AMSaterdayMorningLongsDrugs
a video camera paints a ghost green pixilated version of me
and shoves it rudely in my face
the instant I walk in.
Some young girl
asks a cashier
“do you have any Silly String?’”
and the question
sounds like a clown’s bicycle horn,
ship-wrecking sadly against this whole pathetic
8:00AMSaterdayMorningLongsDrugs
scene
as I pour over and over in my mind-
the notebook options:
“What the hell is going on here?  These are $.99 for 70 pages, and these are $1.99 for 100 pages.  Who prices this shit?  Do I want a thicker notebook?; The 100 page $1.99 option seems to hold itself rigid more, so there’s that advantage.  Yet, the 70 pager, besides being the more efficient buy, would be lighter in my satchel.  Plus they don’t have the 100 pagers in this cute green color.  Oh wait, they do!  Hmm. Perhaps I should go for 140 pages for $1.98, one cent cheaper than 100 pages (in one book).  Oh!  Hey!  Wait a second; all the 100 pagers are wide ruled and these 70 pagers are “college ruled” which I prefer!  Whew, saved by the “ruled/not ruled” distinction.  Oh, come to daddy you beautiful little greenish 70 page bastard you!”
sorry
8:00A.M.SaterdayMorningLongsDrugs
can bring out this sort of
ludicrous mental behavior,
especially while throwing in a hangover
for good measure.
Ambling up to the counter now,
reveling in hollow notebook victory,
the Globe
boasts the beautiful headline
“Who’s Gay and Who’s Not on TV”
in large
patriotic letters
and while I’m thinking about how much
less I would have liked that headline if they
had used a comma in the proper place
I discover that
“$.59 is my change”
(I bought a pen, too).
Exiting Longs Drugs, 8:19AM:
“I wonder what sort of pointless crap I’m going to start with on my new green notebook”.