day TWENTY TWO

alternative facts

honestly

i don’t know what everyone is bitching about

i like the idea of alternative facts

they’re federally sanctioned

so might as well get on board

before they take them away like your health care

like…say someone asks me where i’m from

now i can tell them that i’m as new york as it gets

but your parents?

an orphan actually, i can say

self-created and self-made

there isn’t an ounce of me that’s been influenced by somebody else

and all that ass that i got in high school and college?

kind of hard not to get it

when you’re the starting quarterback

class president, valedictorian, class clown

and voted most likely to succeed wrapped up all into one

women and men and all in between just throw themselves at you

i’m a first-class american winner

i was never the shy fat kid with few friends

thanks to the feds i can lock that bastard up and throw away the key

good riddance to that morose nose-picking fuck

did i tell you that i had two thousand people at my last reading

i had them spilling into the streets, mofo

and all of the books that i’ve sold have provided a steady

if not comfortable life here in the top floor penthouse

i only go to the job to keep up appearances

wouldn’t want to seem too boastful

like it’s all nineteen year old models and trips to paris

or is that wrong too?

like maybe i should revel in my luck

never had a day of sickness

never had to care for anyone in need

never had someone i love die on me

never skipped a meal or had an empty pocket

i don’t need to be told a thing about the world around me

i’m, like, a smart person okay?

a walking encyclopedia

a golden god

those bouts of insomnia at night?

that’s just me thinking the big thoughts you’ll never think

and all of those secret tears and labored breathing?

well that’s just the sound of triumph

right before it catches light and breaks on through

into something YUUUUUGGGGGEEE  

                           --John Grochalski