Laughing Skull At The Vortex

A poem about fatigue.

 

Laughing Skull At The Vortex

 

Driving down Ponce in a trance

from the double-beat of drums

that echo in my head from 

Green Day playing on the radio.

 

As five roads merge into one at

Little-Five, I see a monstrous set

of animated Skull and Crossbones

towering over the entryway of the

Vortex Bar and Grill.

 

I start to stare into blood-red eyes set

deep inside the sockets of the grinning

skull that seems to be laughing at me,

as I slowly approach him in the clogged 

stream of holiday traffic.

 

Suddenly, I see the black circular eyeballs

in the center of the crimson red.

 

Never had I noticed before, but the red

eyes seem to be spinning round and round

as I look at them. 

 

They seem to speed up and slow down to

whatever beat is coming out of my car stereo.

 

Now, they've completely changed their 

speed and style of rotation since Linkin Park's

song is starting to play on the radio.

 

As I take a big gulp of air and brush my long bangs

away from my face, I decide it's perfect timing to

pull over for a famous turkey burger from my

red-eyed laughing friend at the Vortex.

 

 

Author's Note

I wrote this when I was dead tired and I was hallucinating that this sign was moving as I was driving done the street. I wasn't taking any drugs just lack of sleep and food. I had been driving all day working for the holiday.

Reviews

[Dinesh Sairam]

A good description of hallucination here. But, this is more of a prose than a poem. Maybe a descriptive prose. Certainly not a poem. If you took care to channel it into rhyme, or possibly meter, this would be great. But the 'Hallucinated' feel is present throughout :)'

PS. For inspiration on 'Hallucinations', read Pink Floyd lyrics :)

Keep writing.

[Norma M Sutton]

I like this. I've driven until I'm so tired I see things too. Signs along side of the road turn into moving monsters. Definitely time to pull over. Nicely written.