Song G [for good birthday]

lotta dishes in the sink from last night
times for lady fingers much afterward w/ tea
mac n' onions and blessed relief
one of those contemplative days I read
make up by ryan eckes and pick out
the lines that relate to me,    like,
I don't eat cheesesteaks anymore but I do drive,     and,
he truly doesn't care about the rain
holding his umbrella as though
he's always got a friend by his side

surprised not to see anything about the smokeeter
we both prefer smoketeer
steven, the bartender, is constantly taking off his sweatshirt
and putting it back on, because he gets too hot in it.
see, the problem is, he's wearing a sleeveless shirt underneath

he needs a shirt with sleeves, lauren says
I flush and a ghost of a man falls and doesn't seem to stop

What was the row about, they asked
he grasped his sword
and advanced --

I with my yielding nature,
at twenty-five years of age,
cannot find a stable foothold in society.

With silver in his pocket,
he waits for midnight.

as we talked like we always have
(this poor kid with the cute scarf
says zack (calls himself gene
but doesn't want me to call him that

that name is for bill collectors

one day he's at the market and meets
a polish woman who pronounces his
name correctly for the first time in a
very long while

he almost forgot how to say it himself

this conversation we had
it was put down and just left there

------

i will always remember lyosha as
an upstanding person           (a defender

sasha as a friend

and misha as a solitary man

I woke and walked

briskly down the old hallway through

the cold to the source

a toilet laid a cough

swelling on the edge, in tears

me on my side with the cold Deed

for address 225 East

Louden Street

father makes a two-sec call

and hangs up after I assure him that

I'm reading the damned thing

ALL THAT CERTAIN

lot or piece of ground

with the buildings and improvements

(early next electric Sunday)

thereon erected

THENCE

extending Northwardly along a line parallel

with the said "A" street

distance of one hundred twelve feet, six inches

SITUATE on the Northerly side of Louden street at the distance

of two hundred and twenty feet, ten and five-eighths inches eastward

from the east side of "A" street in

the Forty Second Ward of the City of Philadelphia

to have and to hold this cough

a hack all too singular the buildings

improvements, ways, streets, alleys, 

driveways, passages, waters,

water-courses, rights, liberties, 

privileges, hereditaments, and appurtenances

COFF!!! coff coff coff coff coff!!