Girls with Insurance

So much like the punk girls
I desired then—green spiked hair

& the tough exterior, dangerous
to touch: a studded leather jacket

zipped tight. But the fruit
inside—golden light

DNA Comparisons With an Alter Ego

I wear a farthing coin on a string

Around my neck

To remember

What it feels like to hear my voice scattered on the west wind.

There is a pattern in our DNA

That our lives are sewn around

And the ridged fingerprints of my ancestors are left inside--

Indentations on my aortic valves.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

TOM, male, mid-to-late twenties, slacker extraordinaire
HENRY, male, mid-to-late twenties, slacker ordinaire
LORI, female, mid-to-late twenties, diner waitress
SATAN, male, older than recorded time, Prince of Darkness

SETTING:
Diner. Middle of the night. Chrome and grease and bad music permeate the atmosphere. HENRY and TOM sit at a table, finishing their meal, coffee mugs and mostly empty plates between them. The table sits in the center of the stage, in front of a window with crooked blinds. HENRY sits stage right, TOM stage left.

HENRY is wearing khakis and a hideous blue and yellow polo shirt with a name tag saying "Ralph Wiggum" affixed to it. His shift at the video store has been over for approximately the length of one meal and the time it took to walk across the street to the diner. TOM is wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a zip-up sweater. Every item of clothing he's wearing has holes in it. He does not have a job and is at the diner with his friend in the middle of the night because what the hell else is he going to do.