Side Effect of drowsiness

I’m not afraid of where the tree is torn
and all the scorpions and apricots
appeasing death around the base of it.
I burn it down repeatedly
and it grows back paler
every time with bark that looks like flesh
the more I’ve killed it.
I walk in a ditch next to the road
to get to the drug store,
and fill plastic bags
with the side effect of drowsiness.
It’s always dusk on the way back
when the owls start to relocate
and get their bearings
on the way of things tonight
when all the critters
wake to chow down and get laid somewhere.
The back windshields in the driveways here
are always cracked in jagged
veins I add the blood to
to imagine something terrible.
My neighbor’s basement lights
flicker blue and white with how
the frames change in their games
that I have played before but now
find way too boring.
I see their mother take her shoes off
before she even walks inside
and as her fingers touch
the centers of her soles
I’m at the tree again,
with gasoline,
and every way
to dream.