amphibi.us

In Rome I drank absinthe. Two shots. They lit it on fire for me. It
melted two sugar cubes. I didn’t stay in the bar, I’d only come for
the absinthe it advertised. Instead I left to walk through the narrow
cobblestone streets.

I walked until I saw a man fall from a doorway onto the street in
front of me. Yellow liquid seeped from his open mouth. I walked until
I saw a mob of yelling men dragging someone (a criminal?) from a
piazza. I walked until I found my friend sitting on the steps of our
hostel.

“I drank absinthe,” I told him.
“Did you see the fairy?” he asked smiling.
“No,” I said, “I saw a man fall and I saw a man dragged away.”
“Did you stop for them?”
“No,” I said.
“I don’t think that was the absinthe,” he said.
“No,” I said, “I don’t think it was.”

© Shea Newton, 2010