poem of the day 10.06.08

i get

some people
get the world
get bailed out
get new cars
when their old ones
break
new music when they want
new clothes
nice food
i get the skateboard
kids
on the pavement
and dogs biting at my
feet
and bills
and mailmen who
won’t deliver packages
and lackluster versions
of beethoven’s fourth
on the radio
and a landlord that won’t
fix my light
a literary agent
rated the 20th worst
ever
i get the hipsters smoking
cloves
outside my window
and the guy
with the beemer
playing bass
i get harassed on
the pavement
by aids patients
from new orleans
from brothers just
trying to make it
from people in the hr department
some people get nice
dinners
and casual conversation
i get burned by the microwave
and lunatics spitting prose
at me on the three train
i get the bums
with a story to tell
and the one guy no one
wants talking to me
when i have a hangover
and need another cup of coffee
bad news in the mail
shoes with broken soles
pants with holes
in the crotch
headaches
vomit spells
the worst schedule at work
bad books to read
bad meetings to go to
bad cats with bad breath
caught in the rain
debauched from the moment
i step out the door.
some people get it all
and others
like me
like us
get shit on as a matter
of course.
but...i guess i got you baby
you and that smile
and that way of yours
and it makes all the rest
of it bearable.
something those other fucks
can’t say
on a morning when they
get caught in the rain
without an umbrella
and not a cab in sight.