Ambien Beatle

I am the egg man
They are the egg men
I am the walrus
Goo goo g’joob

She just said that she sprang up out of sleep, and finished a thought out loud to me, but I’m between white, cool, and clean sheets. I went into a dream. Currently, I’m not there. Her thought was, you’re going to get it when I get home.

“So, what did you just say? I don’t remember.” I ask her. The seat is cool against me, and there are flashing lights through the kaleidoscope. My sleeping pills give me that—all kinds of illusions. Living is easy with eyes closed.

“No, what did you just say? I took a few Ambien. I know what it’s like to be dead,” she responds.

“What is when I get home?” I am asking. There are a few windows to the side of me, and there are rain drops crying, sobbing silently. They slither while they pass.

“You’re going to get it.” I remember that was something she said, but was it a come on or a warning. We seem to be with each other simultaneously even when we aren’t. We are all together, but nothing’s going to change the world. I am here, and you are here…wait that’s not right!

Are you here? You are in a bed, by a window, with flannel sheets, window open to the night sky. The moon has blue lights. You reach out and hold me hand, it’s warm. The vinyl seats are cold against my boxer shorts. Last thing I remember I’m slipping between my bed sheets like a piece of lettuce between refrigerated bread.

Now I’m swimming like a corn flake.

We drove—I remember, picking you up. I remember climbing out of bed, suddenly, yesterday…came suddenly. And I saw her standing there right before getting into my car. Now, I see her getting escorted out. Mr. City policeman, sitting, pretty little policemen all in a row. There is no train, but there definitely is a station. This is definitely a station.

Timothy Gager is the author of fifteen books of fiction and poetry. His latest, Spreading Like Wild Flowers, is his eighth of poetry. Timothy hosted the successful Dire Literary Series in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 2001 to 2018 and was the co-founder of The Somerville News Writers Festival. He has had over 600 works of fiction and poetry published, of which sixteen have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His work has been read on National Public Radio. His work also has been nominated for a Massachusetts Book Award, The Best of the Web, The Best Small Fictions Anthology and has been read on National Public Radio. Timothy is the Fiction Editor of The Wilderness House Literary Review, and the founding co-editor of The Heat City Literary Review. A graduate of the University of Delaware, Timothy lives in Dedham, Massachusetts with some fish and two rabbits, and he is employed as a social worker. He is currently seeking representation for his third novel, Joe the Salamander, a semi-finalist for The Holland Prize.

Ira Joel Haber was born and lives in Brooklyn. He is a sculptor, painter, writer, book dealer, photographer and teacher. His work has been seen in numerous group shows both in the USA and Europe and he has had 9 one man shows including several retrospectives of his sculpture. His work is in the collections of The Whitney Museum Of American Art, New York University, The Guggenheim Museum, The Hirshhorn Museum,The Albright-Knox Art Gallery & The Allen Memorial Art Museum. Since 2006 His paintings, drawings, photographs and collages have been published in over 230 on line and print magazines. He has received three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, two Creative Artists Public Service Grant (CAPS), two Pollock-Krasner grants, two Adolph Gottlieb Foundation grants and, in 2010, he received a grant from Artists’ Fellowship Inc. in 2017 & 2018 he received the Brooklyn Arts Council SU-CASA artist-in-residence grant.