the reluctant shrink

had s/he listened to his/her friends

who’d done their time prior

in the dives & clubs that the city

churned, or to those that were still

slinging slop to the fishes gulping down

at all hours of the day,

be it the hottest of the year or

the coldest this earth could muster,

then,

s/he might have turned round &

done an about-face,

when given a favorable response

after interviewing,

for little did s/he know that the

job of tending bar

really did entail the need for a big

ear & all the time in the world

while doing the job that you were

getting paid for,

to do one that you weren’t.

 

but monkey is as monkey will do &

so behind the sloppy counter s/he stands

from “happy hour” to those last seconds

of the desperately distraught last call of

the night (early morn)

when the hounds have lowered their heads

& all those with a remaining sexual pulse

have stumbled off into each other’s beds

to wake up the next morning regretting

everything they did the night before

which they can’t for the life of em’

remember now.

 

& like the guy from “The Green Mile,”

s/he has sucked it all in again this eve,

her/his depression quotient maxed out like

the credit card(s) s/he’s struggling her/himself

to pay off &

as the final stragglers are escorted out by the

bouncer, if they can’t/won’t go on their own,

s/he signs one last prescription for her/himself,

slugging back that last shot

in a series of pounding blasts through the night

to hopefully send her/him into

sweet abandon,

the minute that s/he locks her/his

door behind her/him

when s/he steps inside her/his

dwelling.