philosophy can't teach everything
sitting at the counter of a coffee shop
trying to get away from it all
sometimes a bar is just
too predictable
at 1pm
everyone in a bar
is already a failure, they just
get together to confirm it
Here, atleast
there can be some hope
while college students idealize
and the activists sit around
activating
and the new Bohemians
re-enact Bohemia
single mothers are
hunting with their legs for
single non-fathers and
young men talk tall
to the breasts of young women
saying the names of philosophers like
trophy points pinned to a ruffled roadmap
Yes,
even sober at one in the afternoon
Nietzsche, Voltaire or
Socrates-
men still don't know enough
to look a woman in the eyes
----------
Happens
women are great but
they die.
they grow old
stretch out
misplace their teeth
forget their children's names and
die.
one day
you're watching how her legs look
again
standing in front of the sink,
watching
the weight of her breasts
inertia
as she walks to the cupboard
and the next morning
she wakes up
tells you she has cancer
and dies, slowly
wearing a thin
pale blue gown
that never seems to cover her ass.
she's gone.
and all others
are cold stumps,
empty toilets broke and
sitting in an alleyway.
it's a cruel thing they do,
those gods,
making our women suffer
as we wait in the hallway
pacing.
---------
Eddie Kilowatt has released two full length books of poetry, Manifest Density in 2006 and Carrying a Knife in to the Gunfight in fall 2007. When an address is required he lives in Milwaukee. Right now, Eddie works as a doorman and rides a 1973 BMW 750.
