“I don’t like how you’re
living my life
Get yourself a wife. Get yourself a job.
You’re living a dream. Don’t you be a
slob.”
---Weezer
Benny, a
paradox of human potential,
sits there,
affectionately but unaffected,
absorbing his
pitcher of Bud through two straws.
He takes out
his Marlboro Menthols,
and a neatly
packed glass bowl of homegrown happiness,
then wonders
why I think he is wasting away.
Benny gets up
from the table
and glides
over to flirt
with the cop
who arrested him last week.
His eyes are a
bloodshot haven of irresponsible acts.
The cop gives
Benny her number
as if she were
a dentist giving a kid some candy
Benny holds
the scrap in between his fingers
like it’s one
of his precious menthols,
then folds it
up, puts it in his grab bag of incrimination,
and glides
back to our table
Benny sits,
and goes back to being unaffected.