POEM - Why I Took the Blue Pill

Allergies and I go way back

Always there but not serious enough

Not debilitating, just annoying

My itchy skin I get from grass

Never got me out of mowing the lawn

Nor did the sneezing, coughing and wheezing

It was my call

            I wasn’t willing to give in

There was one time, though

A time when the allergies started winning

I was right in the middle of that dream

The one I told you about

Where I’m being chased

Over fence after fence

By those Doberman Pincers

            The ones the biker owned

                        In the cul-de-sac in Gresham

Those pointy headed sleek, black demons

Never stopped chasing me

Every few months another attempt

When I was a teen, some nights were worse

My mind stopped waking up all the way

Just sometimes, just enough

To cause the most terrifying hallucinations

Not zombies or demons

Just everything not right

Like far and near switched positions

But still looked the same,

In the wrong place

My parents asked what I was smoking

Maybe there was something to it

I later learned that most days in Tucson

The highest pollen count

                        Is from marijuana

So I was given antihistamine pills

            The strongest they had

Doc said the back-up in my nasal cavity

            Caused pressure on my brain

Making me have those oh-so-fun visions

I took the blue pill

            Still had a runny nose

Itchy skin and watery eyes

But the hallucinations stopped

            And I finally jumped over the last fence

Blissfully leaving those Dobermans behind