Auckland Poetry

A night out

One evening we went for a movie
It turned out to be
The usual display of
Dumb trivialities
I was bored out of my wits
Sitting in the dark
Yawning and scratching myself
We’d had a beer before so
As the movie progressed
I became restless, shifting on my seat
Dying from the need to piss
I guess I didn’t pay much attention
To what was going on the screen
I nudged my wife and whispered
‘Let’s get the Hell out of here’
We filed out and hurried to the restroom
It felt like the evening’s greatest moment
After a movie
We went for a pizza
And had a few more beers. After that
We popped into quick store
Bought us a bottle
Then headed back home
We killed it while sitting in a living room then
An argument started
‘So you think you’re someone?’ my wife said
‘I bet you think you’re a genius.’
She was laughing like crazy as we
Continued to talk about the movie and my own writing
‘Yeah, you’re just great’ she said
‘You wrote
Your God damned novel
So now
You think you’re made. Admit it!’
And I said ‘Shit. I’m a genius. I wrote a great novel. It’s
352 pages long and it’s damn good one.’
‘You’d been fired from all your jobs,’ – she said ‘and I have been
Supporting you for years with all your writing and art.
Did you ever count how much you’ve spent on that alone?
YOU OWE ME THOUSANDS!’
We kept screaming and arguing till late then
Went to bed. I was writing some crazy chapter in my sleep then
I awoke. It was terrible
A pizza was turning in my gut burning my insides
It was four a.m.
I felt reluctant to get up
And go to the kitchen for a drink of water
I was afraid the floor would creak and moan under my feet
I was afraid to wake up my wife but
I couldn’t lie like that any longer
So I gathered my strength and got up
The damn floor was creaking and moaning under my feet as I
Crept toward the sink
I drank some water then went
To the living room, lit cigarette
And started thinking
About books, my life and all that
I felt like writing something but decided to
Go to bed instead, still musing
About death
Money
Fame
Bad pizza
Booze
I dozed off
In the morning
The whole street was
Buried under snow.

Copyright © Alexander Mikhaylov