poem of the day 01.21.16

pregnant pause

i ask

colby if he’s sure

but he just nods like a scholar

we watch the first snowfall

all over route 22

smoking cigarettes

in a kinko’s parking lot

pittsburgh cars flashing red brakes

no one can drive in the snow in pittsburgh

one inch or flurries

they develop this fear

i want to ask colby if he’s scared

because i know i’d be

but he doesn’t seem like he wants to talk

back in pitsburgh

for beer drunks and vodka bombs

linda dropped a bomb

set to detonate in nine months

i think how stupid

comparing the two like that

how stupid it is

to not know how to drive in snow

or buy a condom

what is life now with this in all of our laps?

twenty-two

and we suddenly feel so old

so…yeah, colby finally says

then doesn’t say anything else

as the cars honk

as the people act like they’re driving

through a blizzard

man, the road isn’t even wet yet

i want to say but don’t

all casual i light a new smoke off the old one

as calvin comes

tripping out of kinko’s

a stack of paper waving in his hands

licking new snow

with his hungover tongue

he says, guys

there’s some hot girls working in there

and i can’t even begin to tell you

what you know

you’re missing