Read a poem by another poet written
on the same day:

one

I cover my ears with pillows
debate calling the police
feel vulnerable alone
listening to the voices laughing

an alarm goes off
it's 3am
the alarm should stop
it's not my alarm

where is the alarm
when will it stop
who will make it stop
where is it?

I pee-sometimes
it's the only thing to do
in the middle of the night
sometimes it's the best thing

I let the dog out to pee
listening to someone else's alarm
someone  in the barranca
why do they need a 3am alarm

the fog's rolled in
the dog's set off the moving sensor light
the barranca is full of pale dripping ghosts
I instruct one of them to turn off the alarm

I close my windows
don't call the police
turn off my own alarm
at 315

two

before someone else's alarm woke me
I am sleeping in the back of my station wagon
all snuggled and cozy
with my two cats and the little dog
when there's an awful sound
a cat and a dog sound  fight
another cat got in somehow
an ugly white with orange scrawny cat
has its mouth clamped onto the little dog's head
I am furious. the cat I tear off the little dog's
head.
it has a mean mongrel face
this is when I wake up.

before this the station wagon is parked
where we're going-someone else's cabin
in the woods but they're not there
and we're comfy in the station wagon and we stay and
wait

before this it is one of those recurring dreams
with the tide someplace normal yet
people don't get out of the way of the incoming tide
but almost sacrifice themselves to it
(it is several weeks later and I remember
this dream bobbing my head in the water
how  it felt to be floating along with all these
people
waiting to be dashed to shore)

and before this all my high school friends
looking like them but supposedly now
have cafeteria trays
and are looking for seats in a bowl like arena
two of my friends that I'd like to sit with
sit off by themselves
in single seats bisected by the aisle
they're fine they tell me.

I look for a seat.