Take this, darling, and you’ll feel better

come morning.

 

But mom, it’s mud.

 

With apple juice.

He wants you to feel better.

And if you swallow this right down,

Before school

you can have a unicap.

You’ll be on top of the world.

Believe me.

 

Who’s he?

 

Dr. Upjohn. He invented a pill that melts.

And a company that keeps the quality up.

 

Mom, no one would want to keep the quality down.

 

At 2:22am, feeling much better,

he looks out his window:

the moon, in full eclipse, is a friable pill

spreading a smoky red beauty

as it keeps the quality up.

 

He drifts back to dreaming: green fields,

splendid buildings, peonies.