My pills doze until I wake them
on the shelf
behind the bathroom mirror,
the one I see myself in
curled over, whimpering,
eyes dark and heavy
like lakes at night.
My pills doze until I shake them
and they dissolve inside me,
make complicated arrangements
with my biology.
They sleep and I take them,
gathered in the cup of my hand.
They tick against my teeth
and I hold my hand over my mouth
as if to shut them up.
Copyright © 2015 by Matthew Siegel. Used with permission of the author. “[My pills doze until I wake them]” originally appeared in Blood Work (University of Wisconsin Press, 2015).