poem of the day 03.06.09

sometimes being a public librarian has its benefits:

madmen

for them
it can sometimes start
like this
“oh, hey, what
are you reading?”
“leave me, alone.”
“okay, fine, faggot
i’ll leave you alone.”
“who you callin’
faggot, faggot.”
“fuck you, bitch.”
“kiss my ass,
faggot.”
“nah, i don’t even
play like that.”
and then one of the
madmen has a moment
of clarity and heads
toward the door
but the other isn’t so
lucky with the brains
so he says:
“that’s right, you better
leave, bitch.”
which causes the other
madmen to stop.
“what you say?”
“you heard me bitch.”
“fuck you.”
“nah, fuck you, faggot.”
and of course this causes
one of the madmen
the madman that was walking
away
to come back and pick up a chair
and say:
“say it again, bitch.”
“faggot.”
at which point the chair goes
sailing across the room
and madman #1 cocks
his fist and punches
madman #2
in the face.
“no you didn’t. i’m calling
the police,”
at which point madman #2
the one who kept it going
the one who wouldn’t answer
the question about what he
was reading
looks at me and asks
“mister, what’s the address here
because i’m calling the police,”
a question i don’t answer
because they pay me to take
a lot of bullshit on this job
but one thing i’m not going
to do is take a punch
from madman #1
who’s looking at me as if daring
me to answer the question
and like i said, i don’t,
but madman #2 calls 911 anyway
at which point madman #1
runs out of the library
because he’s been out of prison
going on eight months
after serving ten to fifteen
over what i don’t know
and the ladies i work with tell
me madman #1 went queer in prison
and is trying to right himself
on the outside
with no success which is why
he started bothering madman #2
in the first place, they say,
because fags can pick each other
out in crowds.
so at this point madman #1 is gone
fleeing down the avenue
and madman #2 is sitting in a chair
talking to the cops
and everyone i work with is laughing
about the fight between the two
queer madmen
except me, because an hour earlier
someone was pacing
in front of my desk
talking about bringing in a gun
into the library next time
because another person
was messing with him
and if there is a moral to this tale
it is this:

when you’re in public
leave people the hell alone
or you might end up with a broken jaw
or worse
a bullet in your belly.