Waiting your turn

Sometimes you write naked and wet

sometimes by candlelight with bad music and incense

sometimes after a pensive bubble bath

sometimes while feeling rosy and refreshed

sometimes after a relapse; sometimes while dirty and ashamed

sometimes under duress

even though you’re not getting

paid by the poem.

but sometimes nevertheless

you write by old lamplight and ravine

you create and destroy; you backspace and delete

you wonder what the Heavy Hitters did before word processing

you pale by comparison and you shy from the real craft

staying comfortable in the professional niche and the cranny

sometimes you succumb because you

can’t do anything else real good that will keep the lights on

and food in the lunchbox.

sometimes the nubile 19 year olds read the poem and wonder

but there’s no offer of a taste; sometimes you ask for a taste

sometimes there’s no answer sometimes there is

sometimes its Yes sometimes its No sometimes its Yes—No!

Sometimes you’re fresh from battle scarred and taken aback.

sometimes broke, sometimes with a fistful of dollars in the pockets

sometimes with a silk hat, sometimes feeling like a pig

sometimes eating yogurt and other times apples and other times ice cream

sometimes with sticky fingers from masturbation

sometimes with lotion while feeling feminine and homophobic

sometimes with really bad memories fresh from bad sleep

sometimes with coffee cup steaming the monitor’s glass

sometimes without forethought or a first sentence

sometimes just flowing, other times in spurts

sometimes staccato, other times Uzi 9mm

sometimes searching for words; sometimes thesaurus

sometimes reaching for stardom, other times for the grave

sometimes in the aquarium wondering what water is

sometimes surrounded by inspiration, giving up god for the sound

of a passing car; for a better parking space; for the doorbell; for a phone call.

–but then again, sometimes god is a telemarketer

—ignored, hung up on and cursed

sometimes with a beautiful girl wearing nothing but toe rings

sometimes her pining in the background waiting and whispering

but most times

alone

and waiting in the futile

Frosty Zone

wishing wanting waiting

all the times mostly

just waiting

your turn

to be

ignored.