"best of" poem of the day 06.23.16

hungover on a bathroom floor in paris

hungover on a bathroom floor in paris

i have a headache and my stomach is burning

i have just thrown up wine and peanuts

from a night of debauchery at la rotonde

there is a tallboy of heineken in the refrigerator

it is half drunk and i don’t remember buying it

but my wife has a digital picture of me

holding the beer and leaning on some stranger’s scooter

with the le dome in the background

and rodin’s statue of balzac off to the right

i have been like this on many bathroom floors before

in pittsburgh, in new york, and in buffalo mostly

i’m not new to this

but this is my first international trip to give alms

to the porcelain god

i didn’t throw up in london

i don’t like this bathroom

the white tile feels warm on my skin instead of cold

and the sink has a mirror that wraps around it

so that i can see how black and blue my eyes look

how pale green my face is

how sweaty and matted my hair and beard are

my legs when i get the shits

i can see wine and peanuts on my t-shirt

i can see what an asshole i look like

hungover on bathroom floor in paris

the bile rising in me again

and the head pounding its too typical beat

a beautiful sunny day trip to the eiffel tower

probably wasted

because i wanted to die too much the night before

because i always want too much.

                                                            04.12.10