12gauge.com 2002

Awakened Early by Headache and Interview

While the outdoors breathe in like an animal
and this current house of cards reshuffles itself
into a sport-utility backseat
hackneyed as the poetry of whippoorwills,
I take a friend's criticism of someone else
and apply twice daily or as needed for hangovers.

(Through the dustclouds of a worldview
once christened the "inverted Copernican,"
I re-administered truths to a parish of thoughts
unrecovered from certain subjective impasses,
such as staying sober on Mondays.)

Sony� rings softly and that selfsame friend rises,
hops a train freighting five million suits,
and discusses at length the joy of career moves,
dental benefits, HTML sweatervests,
and the 401(k)s of sleepy-eyed coffee vendors,
disenchanted with late brunch on slow Sundays.

(It's just a shame you know?-
on such a warmish midweek.
Quit bitchin', rebutted the rebuttal,
amidst the homoeroticism of sock-sharing.)

Then later upon reconsideration
aside two waterfalls named Olmsted and Vaux,
there sat some truth, clear as a dime-bag:
reconsideration's a silly thing
wherever condom-fertilized trash hills
impersonate peach-parasol waterfront property.

(Alright then good buddy,
between the desire lines of old times
I'm buyin' dinner tonight,
as if to cauterize the erosion
of those ten million sneakers.)

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