the Food Poisoning Incident

Just the smell of the terminal was nauseating
an ominous cloud of fear and hostility
ran right through me
as i entered the bathroom and yanked the day old contacts out of my tired eyes
i tried to relax and breathe
but the woman in the stale bore the ominous signs of my trip ahead.
'ahhhh... ughh' she grunted
with force she clutched her cane and started again
out the bathroom i went
weighed down with my body spent
i had no idea what getting on the bus meant

all on board
i began to sleep
dreams of disasters ahead
i awoke with such dread
i was shaking with heat and chill
and even though i wanted to go back to bed
my body had other plans instead.

my only saving grace was my pants, my socks and my proximity to the bathroom
because without these things
i would have been lying in my own vomit and so would he.
i locked the small vinyl door and before i knew it
the putrid smell of the days old feces lying in the bottom of the toilet hit me like an avalanche of poop vessels
like a gust of wind i couldn't bear to take in.
but that didn't matter once both of my hands were gripping the sides of the poop arsenal
my face was almost touching the sides of the toilet as i began puking into the bucket over and over
and over again.

i couldn't stop
it was like my insides wanted to come out too.
sweating profusely
tears streamed down my face
i grew tired of forcing up my lunch
soon I was sputtering back and forth as the bus lurched forward
i was brought down to my knees

no need to consider
that a lanky, detoxifying ruthie was banging against the walls with each push of a pedal

crash went my head onto the side of mirror
as the bus driver came to a sudden stop
lightheaded, dazed and bruised
i couldn't have been more unenthused