Thursday, January 19, 2012

A Hot Man in the Icehouse

They'll suggest we play Scrabble
While they shoot me furtive glances
Thinking I know what's going on in their minds
Thinking I have extra-sensory perception
When it comes to desire

They look at me like I'm dangling
Like I'm the last person left in the Universe
Yet to see sunlight
Yet to experience
Their special brand of salvation

They're wondering who's going to preach to me first

Because someone has to do it

Or do they share it?

Do they take joint responsibility
For my soul's rescue?

They play Scrabble
Then Monopoly
Then Trivial Pursuit

It's funny

The things they can't remember

Or rather
What they believe they can't remember

What they think's been stolen from them

Things they never knew in the first place
They now claim
Are the victims
Of their addictions

And here's me

Still holding mine

Still cradling my fatal flaws in my arms
Like swaddled up babies

And rattling off the answers
To questions
About the Civil War

Maybe they're worried
I brought a soapbox of my own

So I can stand
And demand
That they tell me
They're not unhappier now
Than they were five years ago

Oh sure, we were messes then

Slovenly, sloppy
Filthy, depraved
Messes

But didn't we have fun?

They're sure as hell not having fun now

Oh, they tell themselves they are
They tell themselves
They've having a grand old time

But we used to make fun
Of the people who act they way they do now
And they haven't forgotten that

I would be very surprised
If they'd forgotten that

Then again
It's amazing what people can forget
Isn't it?

It's amazing how easy it is
To freeze yourself
And tell yourself

That you've always
Been frozen

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