poem of the day 03.07.09

now i know

now i know
what calvin
was talking about
all those years
when he used to tell
me that he and isabel
threw around the word divorce.
calvin would call me and say
“you know how sometimes
you throw around the word
divorce?”
i knew what he was saying
but, of course, at that time
i could never empathize with him.
tonight, however,
i think i understand where
he’s coming from.
he’s talking about people in love
that unmovable force to us mortals
that son-of-a-bitch that causes so much pain
and goes off track whenever it wants
how it sucks at you and bleeds you dry
runs you over and over
until you want to kill or be killed
and sometimes we make it
and sometimes we don’t.
the lucky ones, they get
to do battle again and again
until one lover buries another
when they’re old and finished.
baby,
i think i want to be one of the lucky ones.
at least that’s my hope
sitting here tonight in this bar
brooding over drafts of beer
while everyone asks me where
you’re at
and jazzy jeff, our drunken mailman,
staggers around
talking about women on film
and what a great artist
michaelangelo was
as if he was the first one
to figure that out.