poem of the day 10.09.10

today John Lennon would've been 70.
typically i post a poem on december 8 when
we was murdered. today's poem was to be put out
on the 30th anniversary of that murder, on december 8,2010.
but i'm going to put it on here today.

also, winedrunk is on hiatus next week. i'll be back
to bore you all on october 18th

jg


december 8, 1991

we were in the midst
of a slow night
holiday consumerist retail hell
1991
when he turned to me

christ, do you realize
that it was eleven years ago
tonight?

i was just thinking that, i said
i remember waking up
the next morning
the d.j. talking quietly instead
of playing music
my mother by the stove
waiting for me
because she knew
that he was my favorite
of the four of them

and then all they could do
was play the music, i added

he was quiet a moment

i was a freshman in college, he said
some shit school off of i-80
we’d had snow
nobody could really go anywhere
but i found myself alone
in the dorm room anyway

monday night football
was on, he continued
dolphins, patriots
a big game
but i don’t even remember who won

just howard cosell announcing it
telling everyone
that this was just a football game

time stopping
all love dead
some cosmic shit like that

i just shut the tv off, he said
in that moment i just needed the silence
but all of the sudden you could
hear it everywhere

out of cars
in other rooms

the music
his music

what did you do? i asked

i went out walking, he said

i just didn’t know what else
to do next.