poem of the day 11.04.13

what we did before drinking

in the middle

of the three day drought

that i know in my heart of hearts

will soon be gone

i say to my wife

i don’t remember what it was that we did

on nights when we didn’t drink

i mean i have no clue

me neither, she says

then we are both silent

we watch the clock

as we’ve become apt at doing

during this forced sobriety

we tell each other things like

the day seems really fast now

or i slept so much better

but the two of us still keep looking

at all of the clocks in the house

wishing time away until one of us breaks

we read, my wife says

we do that now, i say

we watched television, she offers

a lot of television

we had cigarettes, i say

i still miss cigarettes eleven years later

and i’d start smoking again today if i could

they’ll kill you, my wife says

we laugh at that

because that’s why we stopped pounded so much hooch

then we go back to watching the clock

6:49

6:50

6:51

the water we poured sitting there

on the coffee table like some rejected love child

the cat pacing

wondering where the clink of the ice cubes

the exuberant life talk

and bitching about work went

ah, there are so many good things

to run into the ground, i think

love

vices

talent

and god

that trying to recover them

sometimes feels like a sin

i get up off the couch and grab my keys

where are you going? my wife asks

to get us some wine, i say

she’s silent for a moment

6:52 and counting

okay, she answers

okay.