There is wine but
It is a school night
And a hot bath just took me for all I have
Listening to Joni Mitchell and drifting
I even had the beginnings of a story
About a man newly homeless
Surviving on the free things of life
But that too has drifted away
It is a stranger’s bath
Better than ours
It swallows you and the taps are a classic
Brass with china handles
None of this is important
To anyone but me
I am not drunk at all
It is Monday night and I am ready to sleep
Already at barely 9.30
What in god’s name happened to us all?
I lay blame at the job
The money that buys things and
Loses me time
But I need my red meat
My steak and good bottle of red
Or sweet oak of a dark bourbon
I need the car and the books and music
So
How to reconcile and balance the scales
There is no conceivable way
No poet will survive this
Barbaric age.