Alive in the Bed by John Greiner

Alive in the bed
with a cup of green
tea and spiders
who just can't win
we wait
for the reel
to end.
We hide
film freaks
in the closet.
We know Hollywood
is nothing more
than a black
and white photograph.
Harmless fans,
as well as fanatics
are all so gullible.
She talks on the phone
and prays naked
before her great aunt's
phonograph.
She can't live
like a damsel
in the movies
she watches
after midnight.
She's distressed
just thinking
about the woman
she can never be.
Naturally,
I'm confused
by the nature
of her
conversations
and all of the things
that she reads
in her tea leaves;
not to mention
these spiders
who are having
a hell of a time
in this room
that's just too clean.
When she looks
over her shoulder
and out the window
she says that she
sees everyone
who is going
the wrong way.
I don't feel right
knowing what
she wants to tell me
when she puts
her ball gag in place.
It used to be easy
to be alive and a fool
who wanted to get
the time kicked
out of his head.
Now we look
through newspapers
for windows
without curtains
revealing rooms
without beds.

John Greiner is a Pushcart Prize nominated writer living in Queens, NY. He was educated at the New School for Social Research.  Greiner's work has appeared in Sand, Empty Mirror, Sensitive Skin, Unarmed, Street Valueand numerous other magazines. His chapbooks, broadsides and collections of poetry and short stories includeTurnstile Burlesque (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2017), The Laundrymen(Wandering Head Press, 2016), Bodega Roses (Good Cop/Bad Cop Press, 2014),Modulation Age (Wandering Head Press, 2012), Shooting Side Glances(ISMs Press, 2011) and Relics From a Hell’s Kitchen Pawn Shop (Ronin Press, 2010).