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exhaling toxic fumes Janet Kuypers 1/13/16 so he and his friends bring me to some party in some stranger’s house and one of his friends says to me, “I’m buying a balloon here. Wanna hit?” and I’m guessing it’s a whip-its balloon, but I’m not even sure if it’s laughing gas or what, but wait, isn’t nitrous oxide the teen party gas of choice? But I really wasn’t sure, so I thought I’d be safe and say I’ll do it if my friend does it (and I really thought my friend wouldn’t do it). So his friend turns to him and asks, and he says, sure.             Oh. So that backfired... and I never got the chance to ask what on earth it was I was inhaling before his friend came back, inflated balloon in hand. They told us to to on the couch. So we did. “Just take a hit, lean back and close your eyes,” he said. So my friend went first, handed me the balloon, and like a good student I did as I was told. And it seemed that almost suddenly the party music slowed, even the conversations that echoed around me. And that’s when he hit me — wait a minute, it’s not like that, he was next to me and he just tapped my leg with the back of his hand. So I did the same thing back. Then he brushed his hand against me leg again. So again, I reciprocated. And my eyes were closed and he just kept doing this, just kept tapping my leg. So it had to happen like twelve times, and then it occurred to me that the music stopped. So I opened my eyes to look over at him, and he was just staring at me with saucers for eyes. After a moment I asked, “You weren’t hitting me, were you?” And he said no.         So I just looked around realizing I may be better off grounded in reality instead.

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See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers, welcomed on stage, where she performed from memory her poem exhaling toxic fumes as a story 1/10/16 with music at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry (Cps camera).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers, welcomed on stage, where she performed from memory her poem exhaling toxic fumes as a story 1/10/16 with music at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry (Cps camera w/ E.D.).