Dandelion

They wouldn’t accept me
The ward was full
They wouldn’t even take a slight
overdose of mescaline
over the dozens of
cases of sun poisoning

When those around you
consider you
A “sunjob”
That means every inch of your skin
has this green
foliage-like
tinge to it
I’d known a few
It happened when you sat yourself still
right beneath it
and injected the rays

Most of the sunjobs were loners
like myself
They were attracted to it due to
its main draw
Self-gratification
and
reproduction

(Why be lonely if you don’t have to?)

All you need is a little water
and maybe a nest of bees to suck up
some of the pollen
that forms around the eyes

The worst case I’d seen
was this man
already reconnected
to the earth
His fingers
and toes
had burrowed into the dirt
and he no longer needed
his supply of water
as he fed off the soil

I’d heard even worse stories
where the users’ heads
exploded and seeds would spew out
right up there
into the sky

I still wonder all the time what the
offspring might
look like
and I hope all the time that I
don’t ever get that lonely