86 Proof

 My husband rolls over

onto his other hip.

His leaden arm

felling like a cut tree,

his hot deep breath

stews with Tequila

She holds her breath

trying to remain quiet

staring at the ceiling fan,

the young bartender

in our bed,

instead of sleeping by 

her young son, sacrifices

the old proud man, brutish

seems safe enough

strangely his snore

bothers her less

than the cat growling 

at her naked blistered feet

exposed.

I lie awake dreamless,

the window open, crickets, an owl,

trees readjusting their leaves,

Whispering

I am unsettled 

knowing how easily

he sleeps,

how easily his breath, 

comes and goes.

A moth trapped inside the porch light cover,

slams the sides

meets a natural death, resisting

remembering

how the attraction made him feel alive

instead of finite, fraudulent, 

inebriated, flammable

blame and denial 

she agreed with him

always.

I turn over 

thinking, warning

Be careful of open flames. 

(Lip) Service with a Smile

A man walks into a bar

and sits between

an insurance salesman

and an off-duty security guard.

The three are there,

all six i's

for the bartenders two bouncy breasts

and cheap smile.

The man in the middle

is an accountant.

They are all regular(s)

Men

with regular needs

like thirst

and confidentiality.

She serves them all

on the house

this one

with a wink-another drink?

As a matter of course,

they all obey

(after all-

she's doing her job)

with she-grin.

What do you call a bi-polar accountant?

The salesman asks,

'Off-balance',

he says first.

The security guard

responds to the call,

I heard

insurance agents do it

with third parties,

he says smugly.

Go figure,

the accountant

in the red (tie) said,

Did you hear about

the guy that lost his left arm

and left leg in a car crash-

Well, he's all right now.

The bartender tosses back

two cents,

What's the difference between a job

and a career?

One is,

the other does.

Nobody laughs.

A cell phone rings,

the men all nervously check-

his wife is calling

for help.

A new message awaits him.

A call ignored for now, he’s too busy

to protect the innocent,

for she who does not work,

for a living.

It was the last call

to come in

on the punch line. 

Image of painting by Édouard Manet [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.