prescription

by Matthew Stokdyk

Not knowing where else to keep them
I hid the sedatives beside my bed
after I had taken them from you
because you refused to stop taking them
and you got so fucking high
and I had to drive your car when we went out
first picking up B who wondered
why I was driving as you stumbled from the door
zombiewalked around to fill us with gas
glassy eyes glazed set in the kiln
that never stopped burning.

You never asked for them back
likely because you had no memory
of surrendering them or even taking them;
two years later you didn’t even remember the car.

Until recently they remained there
beside a coin collection and old wallets
long stripped of their money.

But the day my cat crawled inside
I knew I had to flush them

because what tranquilizes a horse
will kill a cat
(and maybe something more).