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PERSONAL POEM

 by W.P. Jake (Cancel)

 

It's hard to get a seat on the E

at 4:30 in the afternoon on a Thursday

Iron and Wine bangs out a mellow

drumbeat.  Jeordie has that diaper bag

Trimmed in red except Hers isn't a

Knock off, full price and I'm always

surviving on little to nothing

 

Times Square Theatre District

I get home to the boxes

stacked.  He is moving soon I know

I shouldn't but

one won't hurt back out I go

Overcast when I look

Up Lexie and I know

it's rarely ever just one.

Andy though he doesn't care

about much never forgets to dress my

glass of Jameson with three limes

He shrugs with a smirk walking away

 

Gams is here Hey do you

Wanna buy some watches he jokes

I got watches for sale

It's Tuesday Tony and Mike are due

We're regulars but

Blarney's drew a better

crowd than this when I was eighteen

 

Marlboro Reds in between Long Island Iced Teas

Adam calls me Chicka he never could speak

Spanish he rolls a Top cigarette

asks for the number of that guy that I lived with

Two years in Jersey selling pot

losing time.  He's always popping X and sniffing Coke

I am twenty six now but I remember K holes

 

Sitting at the same bar, does Adam

check up on me?

Why did you let Joseph join the army? 

he loved to ask me Well I don't know

Adam dies a few years later

            We're not speaking when I find out

I call his cellphone and it rings

You've reached Adam Pomposello

Mad-A I heard a terrible rumor that

you've died

Call me back so that we can share a

laugh

The next day his godmother calls he is

gone, two months now

I wish I could tell him why I

drove Joseph                                        away.

but I still don't know

 

Andy refills my glass

the tourists flow in

Doug and I chat politely

about how wasted Creepy Jim was last week

we call Jim, Gams because he likes legs

I notice Doug has these gorgeous blue eyes so I

tell him.  It's the kind of thing Adam

would have encouraged

 

2005, Briarwood to Midtown East

like true city kids

60 dollars on a Yellow cab, drinking on the street

forgetting that sealed pack of Newport 100s Adam

bought me after too much Dominican whisky

Coronas from a corner store

dropping a 30 dollar bottle of

Jack Daniel's in a theater bathroom stall

Some movies are just

Awful smells like Henny You're a

fool

it's whisky Not cognac

 

It's Monday

getting late and we've had a few

At 12am Andy's shift is over

he sits on the barstool beside me

Sips a Rolling Rock and talks

music.  He's the kind of guy that reminds

Me why I dated musicians I'll come to

your show to show noncommittal support

He laughs and laugh lines are beautiful for the

first time I think about staying

Instead Lexie and I pay our tab

Ladies...Andy,

he hugs me I care a little he whispers I know

I can get into some kind of

trouble if I stay so

I go

 

Walking home these two avenues

A handful of bars up west 47th street so I don't

stagger alone at 3am Hell's Kitchen has

Changed.  I used to buy bananas

now I buy Gatorade One more smoke before I

walk up to number 3E

I check on Jeordie, she is sound asleep so I

crawl onto my bed "You're a Little B"

"You're a Queen B"

 

 

Photo Credit: Jorge Buenaventena

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.