Three Poems by Justin Hyde

to all the roommates i've ever had (newsletter #1)

i'm sorry
about all the homeless people
i let sleep
on your nice couches

and the strange women
brought home from bars:

matt,
remember the ethiopian
presidential candidate
with eight inch toenails
and the surprise
he left in our
microwave?

tavis,
how about the girl
with a purple vagina
on her elbow
and the
smurf shaped stain
she left on the
living room carpet?

some of you
still email me:

i know i rarely respond

but like antelopes
escaping from quicksand

your messages
please me.

george,
you always said
i should be a
philosopher

well

i did you one better
on the scale of
diminishing
human utility:

i've become a writer of poetry

and a daily drinker
to keep it
in check.

i've got a
two year old son

he holds my heart
like a toy airplane.

had a wife for a little while

but like most of you
she wised up.

yours truly
amidst sardine eyes
and piccolos
to the east,
justin joseph hyde.

still, i'd probably fuck her

lyn lifshin is
seventy-two degrees
partly sunny

low humidity

i set my beer down

rub my temples

i give her
consideration
of all available
and hypothetical
view points

i give her
judicious
review

but

unequivocally

against
all my
natural
inclination

i have to
report:

there's nothing
going
on.

crapshoot

i can get sloppy drunk
smack my head
on the edge of a pool-table
at suzy Q's
and get a ride home from the bartender
because i'm a preferred customer

or i can drink bourbon
down on ingersoll
with the newspaper reporters
match them
bullshit for hyperbole
on local politics
and the iraq war

or i can drink straight black velvet at home
piss on the kitchen floor
and get stabbed with a steak-knife
by my italian blooded wife

or i can axe drink altogether
lift weights
run three miles
and cut up a bowl of fresh vegetables.

rolling off the basement mattress
onto my hands and knees
each morning
i never know

which

contrary to
bukowski's
fictional
bullshit

is not nearly
laughable
as it
sounds.

About the author:
Justin Hyde lives in Iowa where he works with criminals. More of his published work can be found here: http://www.nyqpoets.net/poet/justinhyde