A Missed Opportunity
I should have slept with you that night
I could have gotten us a hotel
I should have booked a hotel
Not far from the bar
Someplace close to the bar
It wouldn’t have mattered where
Wouldn’t have made a difference where
As long as you get your dick sucked
As long as you get your dick wet
All before breakfast
As long as you come before breakfast
Now, every sight of me is an eye roll
Every time you see me, you roll your eyes.
Preparing like I’m some kind of level 5 hurricane
A Kind Thing
So, this man’s backpack falls on the floor of the cafe.
Everyone thinks this is a Starbucks.
His bag is a combination of black and gray, small for
Things like a laptop and a notebook.
My instinct is to pick it up, and sit it back in the chair
Before he returns from the bathroom,
But I’m afraid if he comes out, and sees me holding it,
He will cause a fuss,
Accuse me of stealing, so I leave it on the floor
No matter how much I want to pick it up.
When the white man returns to see his backpack,
He picks it up, and sits it back in one of the chairs at his table.
I could have done something kind,
But I didn’t want to get yelled at,
I didn’t want to be accused of stealing.
Adam
How can you despise me
When I think you’re the prettiest boy in the bar?
Even after you and Stevo fell out,
Even now when he won’t speak your name.
Why do you look at me with such disdain
When all I do is bless you with light,
Baptize you with all the love
You can stand?
50 Bucks on My 51st
As my mother walks about the house upset
About the broken ice maker not working in her 1000-dollar refrigerator
She slips me a check for fifty bucks and says Happy Birthday.
It’s nice to know what I’m worth.
My sister will probably get more.
Ammunition
Dear Daddy,
You might as well hand Ma a box of bullets,
Watch her load the gun,
Go stand wherever she wants you to stand
And take your execution like a man.
Love,
Your Son
©2024 Shane Allison All rights reserved.
Shane Allison has been writing poetry since the age of fifteen when he would hide off in the library writing sappy love poems about high school crushes. He has gone on to publish poems in a plethora of lit mags and anthologies. He has pinned two novels You’re the One I Want and Harm Done both published by Simon & Schuster. His latest poetry collection, I Want to Eat Chinese Food Off Your Ass is out from Dumpster Fire Press. You will usually find him hiding off in a corner at a nearby Barnes & Noble composing poems about hot, stroller-pushing DILFS.