interview

look at the people, yo
we were on 10th & waverly drinking sour beer
& petals & sunflakes & dirt
from coffee cups that the girl once tried to charge me 50c
for   to which i gave her the ol 'nvm' and she gave in, and it up

reading old poems & notes out of the little fat book
until the owner of the house finally goes out for the day
and we hop the fuck off his stoop & apologize
only to sit right back down when he's gone

i was in cherry hill earlier that day interviewing for a job
john davis, who didn't create garfield, called me 'keen'
but only because he didn't know how to pronounce 'quyen'
i really didn't want the job anyway and somehow the conversation turned
to his girlfriend's hideous paintings on the wall of his office;

two football players' heads filling up the sky over the ben frank
as if gods, in full uniforms & helmets,
and the other, some black & white mess

the receptionist, who was 100% irish, she said,
asked what I did over the weekend   I went to a coupla bars in fishtown
for my pal's bday, the barcade for example, which I tried to describe to her
'so, you mean like a dave & buster's?'
'no, nothing like a dave & buster's.'

i'm from philadelphia, she said
o? where?
well, outside of philadelphia, she said
it was actually king of prussia   like a day's travel by horse to philadelphia