turkey work

so i'm not going to talk in 3rd person all the damn time.
that would be silly as all hell. i spent thanksgiving
eating a turkey footlong from subway
over my kitchen sink and then spent
the rest of the day watching football
on a road trip tv because my regular
tube broke. i don't like family holidays
because i'm not real big into the whole
family agenda. my folks died when i
was in my twenties, and my older brother
who i love lives with his wife in an empty nest
outside of sacramento. i get my sons on christmas
but they spend thanksgiving with my exes
and their new partners. shelley kept my last name
but lost the desire to be with men. she and harriett
are really good to b.j. but they don't let me come over.
and charlotte, she's in raliegh now, and her husband
doesn't like me at all. which is fine. i got him arrested
when they came to bliss because the deputy owes me
a favor. so, for one night, he was held under suspicion
for terrorist activities. no big deal, right. well, big
deal. because little jack doesn't see his old man
but once a year. i love my sons, except when
they act like shitheads, or are dumb. i
miss them when they aren't around,
and usually they aren't around.
i should have gotten a subway
cookie and chips deal.

the book

so bob's been these writing poems for about sixteen years,
but doesn't ever publish it. the whole "send this
mag your poem to this bullship-mission-
statement crap and feel ultra-
purified validation"
thing ain't his
thing. that
said, he's
going
to give it a whirl. who knows, maybe he'll find some
righteous bros in the poem-showing biz. but
probably not. he wrote a book that is
downright scary good, but there's
no bucks in poems so what's
the point of sending it out
when he can read it
himself and sop
up amazing
bobness.
it's called and they all went to heaven in a little rowaboat
and if it did ever get published it would change
the landscape of the occult called america.
the book is about how this place we
cherish as a symbol and not
a place is interested in
substance less than
image. image
rules us
and
that absolutely blows, doesn't it. people
are driven by themselves and their
genitals, which is human, but
its also ruining america
so we need to quit
being so dumb
all the time.
dumb
to me is useful, but we need to play dumb
instead of being dumb. bob isn't some
prosthelytizer, but its sickening
that people life in cliches
and phony versions
of themselves
a costume
jewelry
lie.