Sense by Richard DiPirro

I
  smoked cannabis
                            in Saudi Arabia
twice

Six of us sat
               and smoked
                           somewhat silently

I was scared that
                     someone would smell
                                                     the sweet aroma

"So what?" one Sergeant said

Some friend sent the substance
                                         stuck stealthfully
                                                                  in seven pages
he wrote

some serious friend . . .

After we smoked
                        we were stoned -
                                                      we sang and said
some stupid stuff

We laughed and wished the sun
                                              would stay
                                                          fast asleep

So that
       we wouldn't see
                              the sand

And wouldn't have to stand
                                         as some sentry on
                                                                   some shithole spot

Someone said
                this was the best of their stay
                                                            in Saudi Arabia

I say
     it still
            sucked

About the author:
I am a poet and writer who has been published in several magazines, including Calliope and Fiction Reader and I was the winner of the 2000 Lillian Spencer Award for Fiction and the Jones Scholarship at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia. I am also the second-place winner of the 2008 Baltimore Review Short Fiction Contest.