24

fat man on a stool
grinding out
a Backwoods
before he
gets up
and waddles down the row
I slump down
and pull my hat down
low
there’s every kind of crazy
in this line
and every kind of drunk.
cracked up
stinky
hard luck men
in the hard luck
morning
in line in front of me
and behind
in the lobby
of Labor Ready
San Rafael, 1999.

outside the puter fog
waits to take our silhouette
and make phantom
the dreams
of the loveless and free
coffee’s hot&putrid in here
c’mon fat man, pick me
please don’t
pick me.

24 appears in All in the wind, my third full-length collection of poetry and prose.  Please visit jimtraner.net for a letterpressed and perfectly bound copy.  Thank you.