get home from work
spending all day with the snakes and the jerks
open the door—apartment complex 107
and today it’s italian
sometimes it’s beef roast
I’ve got to get to know who lives there
they eat better than I
the aroma lifts me off the dirty foyer
carries me upstairs to my floor #3
beer and whiskey bottles by the across
the hallway neighbors door
swiss cheese carpeting
dingy hallway of the broken lights
stick the key in the lock
of a door battered battleship gray
door jam jammed with gouges
too many ins and outs
midnight moves behind in the rent
too many desperate nights spent
doors slammed shut
in fits of rage, alcohol fueled adrenaline
burning in their 455 cubic inch engines
and four barrel carburetors
step inside turn on the light
faucet dripping again
the decorative touch of negative space
jigsaw puzzle of a wooden floor
with a couple of pieces gone
maybe under the refrigerator
I’ll get charged for that I’m sure
outside the bedroom window
naked trees in need of leaves
their ragged bare feet covered in snow
branches waving at me
they peek inside the bedroom window
at an air mattress with a slow leak
a cheap clock radio on cardboard box
brown suitcase dresser overflowing
a big stone from great smoky mountains park
that I grabbed in the dark
and smuggled home
dinner- a half dozen donuts and some coffee
from the dunkin’ on the corner
there’s a dunkin’ on every corner up here
prone position in front of the tv
eat and fall asleep////rinse repeat
