killing spree
J. Rhodes

Met 18 new pals tonight

We began our evening

by strolling from a liquor store freezer

thru the gyrating thoroughfare,

    the chill of the January wind unfelt,

                                a latitudinal marvel…

I never met these fools

   - friends of friends -

we trotted the last 30 yards

had a laugh at the immensely shiny noggin

                                                       of a high-stepping black gentleman

and bounded up the worn Adelaide Manor steps

threw on some string cheese,

hell these suckas know how to party

a peculiar peculiarity

shot like snot from a boogie man’s sneeze

into our scene

one by one, they started dying

“bye-bye Esther” – gently laid to rest amongst banana peels and reefer ash

  “so long Bethesda” – setting still on the ceramic counter like a frozen dove on an oaks barren bough in a feisty winter fritz

“peace Rolando” – stacked upon Bethesda, may ye soul be blessed, forever and ever, Amen.

“toodles Francesca” – between the legs, hacky-sack off the foot arch, hook shot into the garbage…no good!

Some people don’t deserve a respectable funeral in which associates belch embellished comments about a life that stung to think

about…

So they all died

and they resigned to becoming my idiocy fuel and urine

and they actually turned out

to be assholes

     Spilling themselves on my CD sheath

     Making me dial and curse girls I just met

     Bashing my forehead

I flung-chucked the last five of those hooligans

against the front door

swearing to never kick it with their kind for the better part of ever,

only to exonerate and forget

I met 18 new pals the next night

and they’ll be dead soon

just like all the others

5/16/00 8:30 p.m. coming home from work