No War Bride - Algebra Suicide

From somewhere back, a light keeps flashing:

A billboard asking me to sleep

Downstairs, my neighbor is bathing.

I hear him humming a polka.

I hear him

thinking about me:

«What does she do when I can’t hear her marching?»

I’ll never tell him I dream of the army

I could’ve enlisted, been a sergeant by now

Downing brown whiskey and cursing civilians

If I were a soldier, I’d be sleeping by now, my helmet full of rumble and

letters from Mother

Instead, I am wakeful

Remembering you in your white, loose, all-over summr and constantly giggling