Destination Mars

It was day three
Of a four day junk bender
Which would’ve been longer
Except the money was running out.

The party was gonna come to an end soon
And that wasn’t gonna be pretty.

It was Dave’s turn to make a run
To the store
For a score
And he looked like shit.

Hell...
We all looked like shit.

When he came back
That was gonna be it.

We were gonna hafta find money
One way or another
Whether it was stealing
Selling
Or begging
Or else the party really was over.

But all of that didn’t matter at that moment.

I was playing DJ
Spinning records on the turntable.

There were plenty of pillows on the floor
And while Dave was gone
There were just three of us left.

Me and two girls.

We lay there limp and sprawled
White of a three day high
Chapped lips
Metallic breath
Listening to Einsturzende Nuebauten
Usted Ghulam Hussein Khan
Hement Kumar’s
“Songs From Hindi Films”
Gregorian Chants
23 Skidoo
Velvet Underground
And Iggy Pop.

When Dave finally crawled back
We could tell that he was already high.

We could see that the bag was short
Which was against our housebound junkie principles.

Technically
We were supposed to wait
Until we got back to the party
To get high.

We were really pissed off
And really jealous.

The girls turned
Their ‘Bitch’ mode up full volume
To the point of
Hysterical screaming
In stereo.

It was too much.
I couldn’t take it any more.

“Look” I said.

“Anyone of us might’ve done the same thing”

“Let’s just get high and forget about it”

We did.

The girls were pros and hit themselves.

I put on
Annette Peacock’s “I’m The One”
Bauhaus “The Sky’s Gone Out”
Minnie Ripperton’s “Adventures In Paradise”.

Things became distant and forgotten
Within the black channels of
Lydia Lunch
And Throbbing Gristle.

We drifted off
All of us
To the repetitive click
Of the lock groove
At the end of
A Cachao record.


I awoke parched
Lips cracked
The early afternooon sun
Illuminating dust.

I looked around
Lifted the needle off of the record.

We were all strange friends
Not to be trusted
Curled around each other
Mouths open
Like corpses.

I shuffled to the fridge for some juice.
I had a sweet tooth coming on.

The fridge was empty.

It was going to be a very rough day ahead.