when i can’t sleep at night
i eat black wine gums
& pretend i’m a baby bird.
you tell me we got smarter
when we started cooking
our meat.
i wish i wasn’t
such a raw thing.
i make up rules for myself
& then i break them.
i promise i will drink less
& walk more & call my mom.
i promise i’ll stop living
so much inside my head.
if i wasn’t so tired,
i think i could sleep.
helga wants everyone to have a good day every day. they’re the author of MELODRAMA (ghost city press 2018) & their work can be found in peach magazine, spy kids review, tenderness lit, & elsewhere. they tweet @helgafloros