day SIX HUNDRED and FORTY TWO

                                    709 Mifflin

those were hard drinking years
with two bands practicing
in the attic
we’d go through cases
of beer like lightning
at worst, if dared
you could lay on the floor
make beer can angels

but that apartment
was a shit hole anyway
it rained in the bathroom
when it rained outside
there were windows that never
opened and one that never closed
the thermostat was five degrees off
I think the house tried to light itself
on fire more than we did

the day we turned in our keys
doing a walkthrough
with the landlord
and his seven-year-old son
in-between rooms
the son chirps
this place is a dump
just loud enough, I say
that’s because daddy’s a slum lord

--Jason Baldinger