And Patrick Won't Wake Up

The alarm is going off
And Patrick won't wake up

The coffee's ready
Dad's ready
The van's ready
The homework's done
The lunches are made
There's a field trip today
Permission slips are signed

And Patrick won't wake up

He's been reading those philosophy books again
And he keeps talking about the meanings and the lack of meanings
And he talks in a monotone voice
About the futility of Algebra II

His mother tries baiting him with promises of food
Any kind of food he wants
Bacon, ice cream, bacon ice cream
Candy, cake, the soup that takes three hours
To get just right

She'll feed it to him
If he gets out of bed

His father bribes him with twenty dollar bills
Then fifty dollar bills
Then, in a fit of exasperation
One hundred
And Patrick looks at it
And says he's denouncing currency
And religion
And education

Therapists are summoned
And Patrick agrees to engage
In puppet shows that deal with feelings
Word games that reveal hidden intentions
Rorschach tests and jigsaw puzzles
Mirroring exercises
And videos of cars crashing into buildings

The videos were confusing
Even to Patrick's parents
But they were as pointless
As all the other methods

Extended family is showing up
Neighbors are showing up
News crews are showing up

And Patrick won't wake up

Medications are administered
First small doses
Then large doses
And though Patrick gets happy
Then sad, then angry
Then asks if he can buy a car
Then a puppy
Then writes a song for his cello
Then cries
Then laughs
Then cries
Then screams in terror
He will not get out of bed

He falls asleep
And won't wake up

His mother
Against the wishes of the doctors
Of which there are now many
Crawls into bed with him
And whispers to him--

'Patrick,' she whispers, 'Why won't you wake up?'

 His father
Goes into Patrick's bedroom
To inform his mother
That the doctors think
Patrick might not get any better
If his mother coddles him like this

But instead his father climbs into bed next to them
And puts his pleas on top of his wife's whispers

'Patrick,' he begs, 'Please...'

And Patrick won't wake up

. . . . .

The field trip went on
Without him, of course

It had been planned for months
And so despite the fact that Patrick
Had given up on life
His teacher, Mrs. Mendelton
Had to make the difficult decision
To continue on with the trip


She told herself
It was for the benefit
Of the other students in the class


Children need stability
Especially when the instability of other children
Rears its ugly head


So she took the children to the planetarium
Where they sat down in old, creaky auditorium seats
And watched a presentation
Of what makes a planet a planet
And what makes a moon a moon
And what happens when a star burns out

Then the lights went dim
And music began

The most beautifully composed music
Any human being would ever hear

And the children, the students
The friends of Patrick

Watched as shooting stars
Cascaded down all around them

Thunder struck Venus
And gorillas took over Mars

Saturn's rings began spinning
Until the entire planet
Was a blur of gold and red
And orange

Then the music dropped down
To its lowest notes
And suddenly a black hole appeared
And the children felt themselves
Being sucked into it

The old creaky auditorium seats
Wrenched free from their rusty glued down spots
And went flying into the hole
While the children screamed for Mrs. Mendelton
To make it stop
Make it all stop

But Mrs. Mendelton was sleeping soundly
In the cloud exhibit
Next door

Unaware that her entire class
Was about to become antimatter

When she wakes up
She won't even remember she's a teacher
Because she will have never been a teacher
But rather, a children's book illustrator
Who lives two towns over
With a dog named Kit

None of the children will have existed
But in their place
Will be other children

Some better, some worse
All of them slightly similar in physicality
To the children about to be sucked into the Black Hole

Those children will go on field trips
To the zoo
And the aquarium
And the recycling plant

But never the planetarium

The children will cry
And hold each other
By hands
By pigtails
By backpacks

Knowing the end
And something worse than the end
Something beyond the end

The irrelevancy of existence

Is waiting for them

And then in a bed somewhere
Flanked by his mother and father
Patrick

Will open his eyes

He'll be fully awake

And the Black Hole will close
And the children will fall
Back into the old creaky auditorium seats
Which have been spit back out
By the space monster
That is altogether too natural

(Making it all the scarier)

And Mrs. Mendelton will throw open
The planetarium doors
And the children will file out
In an orderly, but expectedly unquiet fashion
And so they will be talked to later
About proper planetarium behavior
Despite the fact that it was expected
They would make noise

Children make noise after all

And Patrick will climb out of bed
Leaving his sleeping parents
Resting on either side
Of a now invisible child

He will go to the window
And see the news crews driving away
Heading towards another small disaster
That will entertain them
For a few minutes

Another Sleeping Patrick

Original Patrick will go downstairs
And make breakfast
Even though it is much too late for breakfast
And out the window
The sun will be setting

The stars will be burrowing
Through the bright blue sky

And Patrick will find a toy in his cereal box

A little spaceship
With an astronaut
Crudely painted on its side

And he will try to be grateful
For the little things