The Advantages & Disadvantages Of Bartending School
Don’t it just sometimes
feel like that freaken
carrier pigeon you
sent out just took
off & hit the road
& took a detour
& doesn’t give
a flying fuck
& decided to
just stop off
in some stray
city somewhere
down the road
with a locket
of your half
haunted heart
& pot luck soul
& got drunk
off beer
& bread
crumbs
in one of those
alcoholic bars
right off of
hell’s kitchen
& herald square
where i swear
they have a shoot-
out or someone
gets stabbed
once a week
like over some
truth or dare
or silly shit
& always
looking
for new witnesses
new bartenders
new drunks & winos
new class of customer
flying bleary-eyed
& disoriented
somewhere
way up there
high up there
without a care
not caring
about your
whereabouts
& you’re just
left stranded
as always
with that
eternal feeling
of what it feels
to feel forgotten
& abandoned
& woebegone
& taken for granted
silhouetted at some
window just waiting
on one simple word
one simple answer
one simple word
answer to get
you out of
your prison
not even
a postcard
a prayer
appreciation
i swear for
the bums
& spirits
who didn’t
make it...
T Stands For Theresa
Being mostly a bunch of jews
we all fell in love with theresa
rodriguez in junior high school
this cuban knockout and bombshell
and every time christmas or valentine`s
day rolled along we all got her either
in silver or copper or gold the letter t
on a necklace to wear swear she must
have had like over a half dozen letter t’s
guess one for practically every occasion
as if any junior high school girl should
need a necklace with the letter t for
every occasion and we would always
check closely to see if maybe just maybe
it was ours like she was sending us some
secret signal and all the jewish girls would
try to take after her too and she showed
them how to do yoga in the girl’s bathroom
and they would all like during lunch squat lotus style
like some sort of cult in the middle of the bathroom
and now that i stop to think about it all does sound like
some beautiful mantra theresa rodriguez theresa rodriguez
theresa rodriguez while her brother carlos though we thought
was a bit crazy and always could never stay out of trouble
and guess didn’t quite gain as much the diva status while
you’d always hear he’d suddenly get arrested for things
like drinking or getting into some brawl during halloween
and he was pretty good looking too and maybe in retrospect
just subconsciously felt a little envious and acted-out
while we all dreamed and fantasized about his sister
theresa that 5th grade cuban bombshell knockout
from what i heard think she might have become
something of a chemical engineer or doctor
interesting i ended up marrying the ivory girl
a nice jewish girl from the bronx and wonder
if that’s like coming around full circle or semi-circle
or around the corner from the hypotoneuse of a triangle
sighing through my dark humid house at night like felix unger.
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Joseph Reich has been published in a wide variety of eclectic literary journals both here and abroad, been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize, and his most recent books include, "A Different Sort Of Distance" (Skive Magazine Press) "If I Told You To Jump Off The Brooklyn Bridge" (Flutter Press) "Pain Diary: Working Methadone & The Life & Times Of The Man Sawed In Half" (Brick Road Poetry Press) "Drugstore Sushi" (Thunderclap Press) "The Derivation Of Cowboys & Indians" (Fomite Press) "The Housing Market: a comfortable place to jump off the end of the world" (Fomite Press) "The Hole That Runs Through Utopia" (Fomite Press)