day TWO HUNDRED and FOUR

Better Than Anything On TV

for Bob Pajich

I guess there are still mornings

I get up and don't regret it

just as there are nights where the air

is blue and the cat is biting my feet

and shit, I just can't stay in bed

for another second. Get up, I say.

Go pretend you're worthwhile

and maybe you'll be worthwhile.

Christ, read a book or something.

Take a wonderful piss and make faces

in the bathroom mirror. Knock

at the neighbor's door, 3am

with a six-pack, half-empty High Life

half-way to your lips when the lights

flash on and the alarm sounds. Shit,

the son-of-a-bitch has got a gun!

Run, you bastard! Roll in your wife's

garden, pretend the cabbages are her ass.

Don't get self-conscious in front of the deer.

This is fine. This is normal. It's better

than anything on tv. This is your one shot

at happiness. Just this once don't blow it.

--Kristofer Collins