from "Inhospitable"

from "Inhospitable"


It's a rosy
rosy view sometimes
looking back full of onlys
and thinking
if I had done the right thing
then the right things will have happened
and the right occurrences occurred

A rosy view without any guarantees
and sometimes to think that
your acting alone
could make things come out right,
it's a damned high expectation

Like on a cold March day in Minneapolis
home in the afternoon
after calling in sick
and weary
sitting in front of the oven
in a robe and long underwear
with the fan on the oven door
blowing out over the kitchen
since the landlord won't turn on the heat
until everyone in the building's paid rent

and sometone's trying to fit a key
into the lock of my front door
for a long time
a long time, I can't stand it any more
and out on the doorstep
is a big drunk retarded guy
with that wine drunk sweet sick smell
all red-faced bleary

from the cold
from the wine
from being mentally retarded and lost
and drunk and wandering
on this grey day
still bitter winter
in a stained parka............


W. Joe Hoppe

..........from his book GALVANIZED