self medicate.

oh, that's so good. oh, baby, right there. yes. mmm...

last night i was awake at 4:17 AM, rubbing my feet together in topical agony, like the dog with the twitch that the family keeps saying they should really show the vet.
left foot: two mosquito bites.
right foot: four mosquito bites.
all bites in radial pattern around circumference of foot, including one on each most sensitive of foot locations, the tender instep... the g-spot of the foot... the taut clenched arch of a muscle that calls out to be rubbed... now needier than ever as it demands to be stroked again and again, now like a junkie whose satisfaction never makes it beyond skin-deep, the meat now forever tense, the skin now pale and scratched raw. needing a new drug i reached for my nubby post-row sandals this morning but the soles could only tease, a little too flat-footed to offer true relief.
oh, it was torture, until just now when i remembered the little packets of cortisone cream in the company medicine cabinet.
alas, it will be sock and shoe season soon, and i'll be longing for the flip flop days of summer.