Poems of the Day 07.25.08

these two were just accepted by the Kennesaw Review. And even though I know you are all avid readers of it, i decided to post them here anyway:

san francisco, 2004

in vesuvio’s
we drank with kerouac
and hoisted pints
of anchor steam
with the ghost
of james joyce,
who i’m not even sure
was ever in san francisco.
this was after we snuck
our books of poetry
into city lights,
and i bought a knut hamsun
novel.
but i believe this
happened
before we got into
a pointless argument
on green street,
and maybe it was
the day before
that we fucked like
animals in
the hotel room
as trolleys belled
on powell street.
later on we would look
at the pacific ocean
one last time,
and then take a walk through
chinatown
when it was empty.
of course this all happened
three days after we left
brooklyn,
and a good three months
after we got married,
which just makes
san francisco the icing on
the cake
in a peaceful year
sandwiched between two
pretty shitty ones.


suffering

one of the cats is laying
on the floor next to me
she has vomited four times this morning.
i took away her food
but then she just vomited up the water.
everything she puts in
comes out her mouth in chunks.
everything i put in my mouth
comes out my ass in burning swirls.
and it is 90 degrees again
in new york.
the cat and i are both suffering
only we don’t know why.
she has the vomiting spells for days
and i have the shits for days
and the back and neck pain
the shoulder pain
and the left chest and arm pains
that burn and get tight
whenever i get tense.
i’m thinking about death again
is it soon or sweet or sour?
i’m thinking about quitting the job
quitting the apartment
taking the wife and both cats with me,
and just walking america stress free
like modern nomads.
but i will probably do none of it.
i’ll just sit here drinking rum with iced tea
at 9:30 in the morning
until it is time for the afternoon shift.
and i will probably clean up
another mess made by the cat before i leave,
get nervous about it and tense.
i’m afraid she will die more than
my own demise.
and i will think these pains in the chest
will lead to my death,
and i imagine my wife coming home
to find us both in a pool of bile and hell
we are both suffering here, this cat and i
we are all suffering
but there is no one to complain to.
no one.