Picking up Your Spilled Pills off the Floor Is Briefly Humbling
By Ben Fama
I was humbled when my boss mocked me
for calling from vacation
I’m broke again
until Friday
from my bed
I see the lights, I see
the party lights
it’s torture
a post-Fordist allegory?
I appropriated a corporate apology
and saved it
in case something happened
but my end date came
and my vacation days paid out
I bought pills
from the intern I’d hired
on my way out
by the seaport
I texted you
we made plans to drink
I like your poochie print workout clothes
the credit card you keep for emergencies
I bought a book
from Strand Annex
though the poetics
weren’t to my taste
later the author died
I was nervous
in those days
always in need
my dark heart, my secret
poetry, my drug-filler
cut into my life and love
that it and I may last
Copyright Credit: Ben Fama, "Picking up Your Spilled Pills off the Floor Is Briefly Humbling." Copyright © 2017 Ben Fama. Used by permission of the author for PoetryNow, a partnership between the Poetry Foundation and the WFMT Radio Network.
Source: PoetryNow (2017)