Blue Pill

Morpheus flickers with possibility on the screen behind my eyes  

in this waiting room daydream. Opens his palms in offering: 

The blue pill or the red? 

In my head I’ll replay this scene as the pharmacy tech 

dispenses my prescription for PrEP. While she prepares me

a vial, my mind wanders down a rabbit hole: wishing 

that this particular blue pill had come sooner – a miracle,

the option to live. To let live. Will wish that Morpheus claimed

no/body from the generations of potential oracles & friends, 

I was never permitted to meet. Many never offered an option to remain 

plugged in. Most never honestly asked by anyone, let alone a Dream 

God, if they’d prefer to stay or choose red & wake up to our cold

future, powered by blood & loss. Thinking of them, I take the blue pill 

from the pharmacist. At home later, standing in front my reflection / I’ll 

replay this scene in my head, think of them again as I lift a pill to my lips 

& step through / the mirror.


Adrian Dallas Frandle (he/they) is a poet & queerdo cook. A poetry reader for Variant Lit & Okay Donkey Lit Mag/Press, they have poems in Daily Drunk Mag’s “Marvelous Verses” print anthology, Feed Lit Mag, & Celestite Poetry Journal. Work soon in HAD, Rejection Letters, Stone of Madness Press, Sledgehammer Lit Mag, GutSlut Press, the “Hell Is Real” Anthology & more. Tweets: @adrianf

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