poem of the day 07.15.16

ten-cent words

i used to have lines, baby

lines and humor

coming out of my ass

it actually worked on some girls

i’d have them laughing like lunatics

with the shit i said

a natural born comedian

with a double chin and chaffed thighs

in husky pants from the tall and fat store

although my humor never got me anywhere

but with some other girls

there’d be nothing but a stone silence between us

as i dropped lyrical bomb after bomb

a first class comedy act that i made up on the spot

christ, you could hear a pin drop

between me and these critics before their time

those bold queens

who turned their noses up at me and walked away

in an effort to save themselves a little face

in a way they were foreign beasts

that i struggled to fully understand

because most times later

i’d catch those very same girls in close quarters

with some well-polished blank of a boy

dropping his ten-cent words into their ears

dull lines, for certain, that had the girls

laughing and laughing like lithe hyenas

i’d watch them dance around each other

as if observing some sick science experiment

the graze of the arm

the brush of the hair

wondering how in the hell they did it

with such little effort, while i sweated and toiled

before sulking off wounded and confused

knowing less and less about the way the world worked

then i did only moments before

except that what you looked like on the outside

meant anything and everything

and what was inside of you, baby

didn’t really count for shit



AND.....Wine Clerk is out! my 2nd novel. published by the legendary, yes, FUCKING LEGENDARY , Six Gallery Press. You can order a copy here. I'll even have someone
else come to your house and sign it for you!