ten minutes for a quarter

let's stop

for the night, i told her as

we pulled

into the roadside motel

off 95, heading

south.

we'd been driving

in the rain for ten hours.

she was already half

asleep.

it was a cheap room,

with a clerk

with one eye at the desk.

he gave us the key

and we went

in, falling

onto the hard bed.

there was a meter next

to it, that made

the bed vibrate. i slid

a quarter in making the mattress

shake like

bacon on a griddle.

this made her wake

up, and put her arms

around me.

okay, she said. but hurry,

i'm nearly dead.