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