A Patio - James McInroy

I belong on

a tiled patio

with cigarettes

jammed into an ashtray

like shavings

in a carpenter's shop,

and neighbours that are

too loud.

I belong below

a dirty orange sun,

with cheap whiskey

that makes me

hiss until it doesn’t,

jobless,

frantically turning out nothing poems

for filthy magazines.

I belong in

greasy motels

with borrowed typewriters

and napkins and pens

and crappy, early morning

TV infomercials that

fade into nothingness.

But I cannot afford

a tiled patio,

and I care about my health

and the economy eats up

and kills a certain kind of failure,

and so I

wallow in mundanity,

with a corporate amount to show for it,

and the wrong kind of tired.

---

James McInroy is a high school English teacher who spends his free time working on mystery and fantasy books that fill in the gaps left by writers he read when he was a child. He has self published two novels, and a collection of poetry, but despite his best efforts, is still looking for an elusive publication that pays him actual money for his work. In his free time, he stares at the wall until he can come up with the perfect murder (for his detective stories). Occasionally, he still produces a poem or two. (Poetry)