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Saturday, June 17, 2023

WHILE STILL I STAY IN WONDERLAND

by Royal Rhodes




Companies Agree to Pay $19B in Opioid Settlement.
           —BioSpace, June 12, 2023

One pill
makes me lighter—
ether from Elysium—
seeing the world in pixels.

One pill
makes me forget.
Did I take this pill
already and even yesterday?

One pill
lets me blink
and conjure unicorns,
feeling sweat on my hide.

One pill
when I awake
projects old photos
of poets stifling words.

One pill
lifts me, another
drags me headlong.
Fear makes my mouth dry.

One pill,
the last, bestows
on me all I desire
most: a glimpse of nothingness.


Royal Rhodes is a retired educator. His poems have appeared in Ekstasis Poetry, Ekphrastic Poetry Challenge, Foreshadow Poetry, and other literary journals.