Nightmare City

by Ankit Raj Ojha

On my morning stroll
to fetch the paper

the town drunk stops me
to recount one of

his epic adventures where
he stumbled upon

an eerie realm with
big-eared folk

who would spread one
to sleep on,

draping themselves
with the other.

I come home to the TV
serving staple

horrors, ranking tragedy
as if lives could be

measured on a scale of
worthy to not.

At night I hunt for the
drunkard’s realm

in the atlas, only to discover
it nowhere and

everywhere, and that I, too,
am a dweller in the

nation of well-endowed
sound sleepers.