Manny’s Light
Just enough information
For you to feel,
Just enough emotion
For you to know.
The sputtering of an old exhaust,
Thunder’s strident applause,
Are simply no match for
This fierce neon glow.
This molded polycarbonate
It draws you in to
A waiting game, only a moment
‘Till it vanishes like ancient magic.
The red bleeds out into water,
One thicker than the other,
Stuck there all the same
Like a thorn in nature’s side.
Maybe the thing is broken!
And you wonder what you’re seeing.
Your fuse is growing shorter
While the red seems to deepen,
Mocking you, sloppy drunk.
Everything else fades out
And you want to just get out
But this mistake will be your last.
–
Hunks of metal in the road,
The exhaust still sputtering,
Grey clouds are almost blue.
In fact, there is blue out there.
You wonder why the sky is upside down.
But you don’t have to worry, because
The red bleeds out into water
Down a drain and back home.
There’s a noise in the distance
And you wonder if it’s getting closer.
Then you know it’s getting closer,
And a violent flash of lightning
Gives way to rain, which gives way to
A white room, a bedpan, sterile and vile.
Now the noise is gone, all the noise is gone
As shards of glass get picked from your face.
Your memory is fuzzy, and only half there.
Rain taps on the window like a fingernail
Over and over, and it’s almost comforting.
A glass of stale liquid is raised to your lips.
Your dry, useless strips of mauve skin.
The red bleeds out into water,
Maybe for the last time,
And maybe that is what you want.
Word Problems
PERIOD: __ NAME: ___________ DATE:__/__/____
1) If Suzie has five apples
And Johnny takes two away
How many apples does Suzie have?
How many does Johnny have?
2) If Suzie has five oranges
And Johnny tries to steal two
Will Suzie let him?
Or will she fight back, risking injury?
3) If Suzie has five children
And Johnny takes two away
Should Suzie call 911
Or should she make two more?
4) If Tina and Eric are Johnny and Suzie’s children
And they each have two children later in life
How many grandchildren will Johnny and Suzie have?
Bonus question: Will they be alive to meet any of them?
5) If Johnny is driving South
At 85 miles per hour
And a train is coming from the Northeast
Will Johnny’s car explode?
6) If Johnny has five bottles of Jack Daniels
And drinks one every fifteen minutes
How many empty promises will he have left?
Bonus question: Which of Johnny’s organs will fail first?
Extension (do only if you have more time):
If Suzie has a hundred apples
And takes out all the seeds
Each one containing a small amount of cyanide
What do you think she will do with them?
___/100
— Asher Rosoff is an emerging writer from the Southwestern US. He enjoys surreal art, meditations on culture, and drafting a dozen different cover letters to send to one literary journal.