sometimes he hears a phrase hears a phrase hears a phrase and it's off for God's sake 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 the red light is off 10 is it 9 the number of ending 11 there's a phrase repeats repeats repeats no comfort in the glow of an active fire alarm just an optical delusion here's a phrase he poked an unloose tooth tight as a nun's cunt till it was bloody and he cried with dread because he knows he's being watched hours and hours trying to sleep thinking of teeth and ovens over and over and over  hears a phrase phrase phrase and he hacked at his tooth with a broken bic pen and the dentist asked if he was on medication and he said he had to leave for he had left the oven on it used to be 3 but 3 leaves room for doubt 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 13 13 and his doctor told him to keep a piece of paper and write down when he's certain that all the doors and windows are locked all the taps undripping the sink hole uncovered fridge closed firmly switches off the oven unlit and most importantly that big red switch is off off off and when he was a kid his father burned the house down and now the smell of burnt toast makes him feel strange and afraid all day and the big red light hears a phrase and sometimes when he goes through old notepads he sees pages upon pages upon pages of DONE + OVEN with various time stamps and dates beneath some with various entries underlined frantically and he feels the energy of desperation leaking from the page like terrible goo and it used to be spitting back in the day and before that a weird thing with his eyes and a sound with his lips that made people ask if he had adhd and before that barely a memory of a memory's dream of scraping the ground with a satisfying scratch scratch scratch hears hears hears a phrase but bad things would happen if he didn't do all these things he has no explanation as to what it all means and he probably still doesn't doesn't wherever he is