Voyage of the Ambien Eater
Don’t say you never do it or something
like it—up and sleeping through cup cakes with
mustard sauce, crunching pasta right out of
the box. Before that, you whipped out credit
in inappropriate places, confessed
to strangers about your noble uncle’s
club foot, buddied Jim and Jack. You knew each
late night pitch man, in fact believed them all,
tried to colon cleanse but survived just one
week. Who can swallow so many herbs? Though
you’ve joined the lotus eaters, you still don’t
rest, typing in your pass word en route to
meeting with a big shot’s one-eyed son, then on
to face the Sirens after palace life.
Who knows what will turn up in your Sent Mail,
under your trolling history, on your
caller ID, slaughtering what cow, the
counter a mess after you’ve descended
at midnight to hear Agamemnon on
his wife, Tantalus on thirst, Sisyphus
pushing his load even over a meal
as you eat your way back to those who wait.
Q: Where is your favorite place to write?
A: I have a tendency to scribble on whatever piece of paper I can find when an idea comes to me. I used to work in what I called “The Fort,” which is a little writing corner I made in my attic, but I seem to be using the laptop in the kitchen these days when I am putting something into manuscript form.
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Q: Do you remember the first poem you read that really blew your mind?
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A: The first poem that blew my mind was “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, which I read probably when I was in middle school. Until then, I thought poems were little ditties that rhymed.
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Q: What is the most interesting thing that has happened to you in the last 12 months?
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A: The most interesting thing that has happened to me in the past 12 months is that I became a crone.
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Sandra Kolankiewicz’s stories have been published widely in journals. Her chapbook Turning Inside Out won the Fall 2007 Black River Chapbook Competition, and her novel Blue Eyes Don’t Cry won the Hackney Award for the Novel in 2008. She teaches Developmental English at West Virginia University Parkersburg.
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