I hear a THUD
scrape scrape scrape
THUD
whaa
scrape scrape pause
scrape scrape THUD
He isn't going to stop, is he?
slowly, reluctantly, I increase the space between my eyelids
allowing light in
allowing him to win
again
Why can't he just wait?
ten more minutes.
or maybe twenty.
scrape scrape scr-FINE
I turn my head,
prop myself up on my elbows
where is that little shit?
there he is.
a mound of orange
a mop
a tiny puff
on top of my desk.
We make eye contact.
as he reaches fo my coffee cup,
left there from last night's homework binge
our eyes are locked as he puts his incomprehensibly tiny hand upon it.
and pushes
ever so slightly
scrape
push
scrape
push
scrape
is he smiling?
he just winked at me
the fucker.
THUD
"fuck you"
whaa
"yes i know."
whaa
"i'm up, i'm up."
i allow my tired legs
to swing to the left
let my tired feet
greet the bare carpet
the bare carpet doesn't seem to notice
though my feet do
they're cold
and it's all his fault.
whaa
as if on cue
he wont let me pause
i reach out
hold my hand to his face
he rubs against it
looks at me sadly
whaa
as if to say
"i see you're up!
good morning!
now feed me,
dick."
okay, fine
i put weight on my cold, tired feet
lift my cold, tired ass
from the warm embrace
of a freshly slept in bed.
I drag my feet across the room
alerting the carpet to my presence
as four tiny feet hit the floor in response
and patter over to me.
I reach down
lift his cold metal bowl
and push the door open
dragging myself into the kitchen,
an excited puff hot on my trail.
the linoleum kitchen floor is worse
why does it have to be so damn cold?
I set his bowl on the counter
pull out his food
dry
and wet
open the bag
pour in the dry
clink clink clink
he knows the sound well
and looks up at me excitedly
I pull the top off the can
spoon some smelly, off-color paste
on top
as if it was a cherry
on a big dish of chicken-and-liver ice cream
mmm
I roll down the bag
push the top back onto the can
and stash them away
until tomorrow morning.
I pick up the bowl
he knows where i'm headed
he knows what's next
and dashes back to the room.
I set the bowl down and he immediately dives in
chomp chomp chomp
replacing scrape scrape scrape
as the noise that will keep me awake
I top off his water
from a half empty bottle
and trudge back to bed
for a few more minutes of warmth
before i have to brave the tundra
and as my head hits the pillow
and my eyelids embrace once more
BEEP BEEP BEEP
fuck
good morning.
