Tuesday, April 20, 2010

poem of the day 04.20.10

hurricane

i was a hurricane of a man,
he tells me,
i used to pull a lot of women
back then
when i worked sanitation
but i never got over her
we dated five years
five years and all i did was
cheat on her
i never felt bad about it
until last weekend, though,
when i saw her
i was with my buddy
we were dropping his daughter
off at college
and there she was
she’s the dean
of the biology department now
she hardly looked any different
from when we were together
she looked good
when i got home i looked her up
on the internet
i paid some money and i got
her address and phone number
i have her email address too
the computer said she had two kids
i found out that she was divorced
i have five kids myself from three
different women
i have to say i never loved
any of them as much as i loved her
i’m thinking of getting in touch
but i don’t know what the proper way
to do it is
i wanted to write her a letter
but i’m no good at writing or emailing
i figure maybe i’ll just go up there
show up at the biology department
but i probably won’t get to see her
because things have gotten
so damned fucked up since 9/11
they think everyone is a criminal
or terrorist now
i don’t want to cause a scene
at the school
my buddy’s daughter goes there, you know,
i think causing a scene would
send the wrong message
i think i’m just going to show up at her house
maybe i’ll buy some flowers
see if there’s any spark between us
after all of those years
i wish i never let her go, he tells me,
she was a good woman back then
the best
but i was a hurricane of a man in those days
i blew through love
i just didn’t think it would
get as bad as all of this.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

What a tale... And what a take on either long lost love or a modern stalker....

Cool... and creepy sorta

John Grochalski said...

again, i'll lift the veil. i was in my local bar last thursday and this guy is sitting next to me. he asks me if i'm a writer, and i tell him "no," i'm a librarian. then he takes it upon himself to unload that story on me for the next forty minutes.

i loved it so much that for the past two days i've been turning it into a novel.

i honestly don't know what i'd do without that bar