THE PROTEST

We ate strips of carrot
drank warm water
& sat in our chairs all night.
We were allowed to speak
only four sentences an hour.
There were ten of us
protesting about excess.
At ten o'clock we ate
a slice of pear each,
topped with six 'hundreds & thousands'.
We didn't smoke.
Nobody had a policy against smiling
but after the first hour,
the smiles were rare.
At midnight, eight of us
walked to the front door
together
& said goodnight,
once.

Myron Lysenko, from Pets & Death & Indoor Plants.
(c)2002