Wednesday, June 3, 2020

I'm Finding It Harder to Be a Gentleman

I’m coming down the stairs

Make way for me


Look I made myself

A crown

Out of ripped up sheets

That I found

On your bed

Where you told me

To sit


I sat

Then I got up


I didn’t ask you first

I didn’t think


I didn’t think you needed

To be asked

When I could

Come down


Can I bum a cigarette

Off you?


And do you have a light?


I was going to walk home

But you said to sit

And you didn’t say ‘Get up’

And I got going

And you didn’t notice

And I came back in

And I went up to the room

And I ripped up the sheets

And you were down here

Making biscuits and eggs

And it’s not even breakfast

Unless you like

Breakfast for dinner


But nobody ever ate

Dinner for breakfast

Did you ever notice that?


Did you ever notice

That nobody ever

Makes themselves

A salmon cake

For breakfast?


Unless you do

And unless I’m being rude

And if so, oh

I apologize


Do you know that outside

It’s a hundred and five degrees

And the wax mosquitos

Are falling off the trees

And little kids

Are refusing to go in

And their mothers gave up

And stuck their heads

Inside some ovens?


They’re not dead

Nobody’s dead

Nobody’s going to die

After this


We have already crossed over

To past

To passed around

Like a cigarette

Amongst friends


Those biscuits smell good

I’d love a few

If you can spare ‘em


I had no plans

Of disobeying you

When you told me

To sit

And stay put


But I heard the sizzle

And I thought

There would be bacon

But stupid me

You can smell bacon

Not just hear it


So what was the sizzle?

Do you want to tell me?


Do you want to tell me

Why your hand

Looks burned?


You don’t have to hurt yourself

Just because you hurt me


No reason

For the both of us

To be hurt


That’s not a sacrifice

That’s just a fucking statement

Of fact

Isn’t it?


But if you want to let me have

One or two biscuits

And that cigarette

And a light

Before I leave again

And make sure you notice

This time, well--


I won’t say ‘No’


I think it’s safe to say

That right about now

That’s the only thing

That wouldn’t

Make me say--


‘No’

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