these earlier appointments

i hate
these
earlier
appointments

i’m stuck in
a waiting room
with the damn
soap operas on

the faces are a
little older and
fucked up after
that many
facelifts

the shows are
still the fucking
same

someone is
cheating on
someone and
someone else
is back from
the dead

i don’t blame
the actors

the hacks that
write this shit
should be
blamed

of course,
they get paid
more than a
lonely poet
does

a glass of brandy

i poured myself
a glass of brandy
the other night
and my mother
looked at me
like i was crazy

i told her this
is sophisticated
white trash at
its finest

a glass of brandy
from a bottle that
cost more money
than i make from
poetry in a year

all while wearing
a dirty t-shirt and
sweatpants

watching
professional
wrestling

bitching about
how so and so
should retire
and they can’t
make him the
damn champion

i hold off on
pouring myself
another glass

i like for the good
shit to last more
than a week or so

all in the tongue

you remember the old school dances
and being the only white kid hanging
out around the black girls

i had a friend once ask how the fuck
does a guy in a guns n’ roses t-shirt
always have a black girlfriend

i told him it’s all in the tongue

i still don’t know if he knows
what that means

but i hate being one of these fools
living off of old memories

i never thought it was going
to be like this

i can hear the old homeless guys
in my head saying that is what
you get for thinking

we are creatures of instinct
not thought

it’s amazing what a few nights
of jack daniels on the street
will teach you

like there are no pretty hookers

cops will only take a bribe if
you are able to sweeten the deal

never walk up on a man pissing
in an alley

and never feed the strays

animal or human