DISCOTHRASH

#3 "The Price of Admission" B. Caligula

illustration by Chelly Maher

with hopes of despair, I bandage my smallest finger. I wrap a wire wreath of rusted magnolias around its hilt and dip it in liquid ivory.

milk of magnesia has replaced my serotonin. an ulcer is offered at the pulpit: the meeting place of heaven, hell and rehab.

the spot where my body will finally come to rest

and so we park the car at the far edge of the mini-mall, uncovered and empty, to wait for rain, to greet our gods as they transcend the bitter edge of suburbia like a broken bottle does the soft skin beneath the arm, and when the planet bleeds out on a bar room floor, the bouncer will sprinkle drink tickets around its withered husk, turn the lights out when they leave.