hypocrite
me
judging
the
woman
buying
lottery
tickets
buying
my
third
gallon
bottle
of
vodka
this
week.
mr. popular
today
the phone in my office
rang off the hook
i swear it was a new record
people needing me for this
people needing me for that
for a second
i felt important
like mr. popular
…until i remembered
where in the hell
i was.
that hunger
they aren’t lovers yet
but they will be
you can tell by how close she sits to him
talking her poetry
a little work romance
that they’ll have to hide from the world
for a while
with her garbo eyes
and his clark gable moustache
they look timeless
and in time
two kids figuring each other out
while i sit there
and watch them
like a fat relic
who’s had his passions plucked
wishing i was young again
and could saunter over there
starving
with that hunger
to eat her words.
©2024 John Grochalski All rights reserved.
John Grochalski is the author of five poetry collections, three novels, and the novella Wolves of Berlin Headline Amateur Night at the Flute and Fiddle Pub (Alien Buddha Press 2024). He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.