The Evers

At least once you should live with someone
more medicated than yourself. A tall man,
he closed his eyes before he spoke,
stocked groceries at night and heard voices.
We were eating cereal the first time,
Cream of Wheat. He said that she said
we’re all out of evers without explaining
who she was or how many evers we had
to begin with or where they were kept.
I slept with an extra blanket that night.

—Bob Hicok, from “Bottom of the ocean,” Insomnia Diary