Monday, January 20, 2014

The Librarian week poem of the day 01.20.14

this week i'm going to use the blog to post the poems that ended up inspiring my first novel,
the librarian....available here


scum

mona walks into the exit sign
instead of the door
then stumbles back to her seat
confused
benny sits a few away from her
smelling the limes that the bartender
is cutting up
they remind him of cabo he says
she starts crying
he gets up and goes down to her
pulls her off her stool
takes her out the backdoor for some privacy
but you can still hear them
mona crying and bitching
benny telling her to go the fuck home
and sleep it off
when he comes back he talks to
the guys about the mets
the jets draft picks
mona is back in her seat, bawling
sucking another johnnie walker black
she yells and calls him a son-of-a-bitch
a dumb drunk
tells benny that he’s scum
he tells her not tonight, baby
let’s not make a scene tonight
she gets up and makes it to the door
goes through it this time
letting in the fading light
the joint gets quiet for awhile
just some neil young playing faintly on the juke
it still smells of lime
benny shakes his head and says “women”
ivan leans in and tells him that it’ll be all right
ivan tells benny that he likes scum
they laugh
the bartender pours another round
mona’s johnnie walker sits half-finished
christ, how is she going to walk the whole
way home, i think
while on the television is a game show
wheel of fortune
but none of us are watching it
right now                                                         

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