poem of the day 04.18.16

poem in which the neighborhood asshole

fixes his car on the first seventy-degree day

of the new year

obviously there are the requisite tattoos

a neck one of a skull and crossbones

that bullshit spider web on his elbow

the ones going up and down his forearm

so you know what a bad ass he is

i’m sure death before dishonor is tattooed across his back

and something about his mother

tattered close to his heart

there aren’t even leaves on the trees

and he’s got a late summer tan

the wife beater seems almost obvious too

a powdered blue one from some beach in south florida

where maybe it was sex, maybe it wasn’t

but, hey, at least no police report was filed

and that hair he has, a style that every other dego prick

in this neighborhood is rocking

what is it?

pizza slurping douche bag by way of the murderous marines?

semper fi for sure, bro

and is that his camouflaged ATV parked in front of my building?

the sun and a cloudless blue sky are like crack to dudes like this

the way they attract asshole families eating ice cream cones

on their way to kill precious hours in the park

cockroaches one and all

i’m sure he’s contractually obligated to say, yo, what’s up?

to every blonde chick with resting bitch face

who passes by him in biker shorts

sucking down on a gallon jug of sugar-spiked iced coffee

while shouting at their boyfriends on their phones

about what insensitive pricks they are

behind his reflector shades is a blank stare

or one of some mongoloid, bulging eyed confusion

contemplating how he even found the front door

jetlagged and hungover and yet in need of a drink

i watch him noodling on his engine or carburetor

not sure if he even knows how to fix a car

waxing poetic to my wife about charles darwin

about how easy it would be to kill a man

if only it weren’t for these laws we have here

i think this guy also has the right to vote

the right to oxygen and water and the very essence of life

to the cosmos we’re one in the same

two specks of stardust shit forced to endure each other

on the same sun-soaked block

on the first seventy-degree day of the new year

where his car alarm has been wailing for at least five minutes

as he touches wires and laughs the laugh

of a peaceful fat ass, unfazed buddhist

nods his head to the relic rock coming out of his stereo

as the dog across the street barks shakespearian sonnets

yowls for tender mercies

and i close the blinds

grab the vodka

and pray for rain.