SELECTED POETRY

by
David LaBounty

A WEEK OF JUDGEMENT

Homogenous
they stood
in front of
the dairy
section head
to toe in winter
running gear
skin tight
and black
and he said
with his
wire-rimmed
glasses, let's do
Mexican
this week,
I can get that
taco mix and
mix it with tofu
and they have
that shredded
organic cheese.
No, she said sharply
cheekbones sharp,
we're not doing
that this week and
she saw that I was
staring so she
lowered her
voice and told
her husband
exactly
what they
would be doing
that week and their
baby sat in the grocery
cart, eyes glassy,
nose running yellow
and thick and it
smiled at me, its
lips stretching
the crusty skin
between
its mouth and
raw raw
nose.

� David LaBounty

---

JANUARY IN MICHIGAN AND IT'S LUNACY

It doesn't matter that
everyone knows
someone
that can't find a job.
And it doesn't matter
that houses are for sale
for months and years
and it doesn't matter
that I can't afford this
but I'm waiting an hour
and a half and it's a
Friday night and I'm
waiting to get into
a restaurant and me
and the wife and kids
are in that throng of
people packed in the
front of the restaurant
like cattle on their
way to the slaughter
waiting for a table
waiting for that
steak or chicken or burger
and I'm waiting for the
two three beers and even
though I can't afford it
like everyone else
I feel that I
deserve it.

� David LaBounty

---

THE APOCALYPSE

I can tell it's starting
to end by the way
she loads the dishes
into the dishwasher
and by the way she
doesn't look at me
when we talk. I can
tell it's over by the
way her smile fades
as I enter the room
and I can definitely
tell the end is
way past due
by the way she
stabs her food
with her fork.

� David LaBounty

---

BILLY COLLINS AND KUNG-FU

It is an empty school
another closed and
empty school
as all the children have
moved away from here
for suburbs greener
and grander and the
dead school
is used for evening classes
and daycares and I sit
in the narrow hallway
of echoing and nasal
voices of mothers and
fathers talking about
themselves and I
read Litany while my
sons are in kung-fu class
and there are chills and I
admire Collins.
I admire Collins
and I picture him
in Connecticut or the
Hudson Valley or
someplace that I'll never
afford
and I wonder
what he would think
if he knew he was
here, in a dying suburb
in a dead school
while my kids practice
kung-fu and there
are chills because
I am the
evening paper
blowing down an alley
and my wife, she's
always
the bread and the knife.

� David LaBounty

---

GUILT

Black with guilt
and I'm always
black with guilt
and that's what
comes with having
a job that requires
you to lay a little
bullshit on your
customers and
a little bullshit
on your
employees
and
the bullshit
is nothing more
than little
white lies
harmless lies
forgettable lies
and that's the
problem.
I always
forget about
the lies I've told
and sometimes
that thinking
comes home
with me and
the guilt
the black guilt
comes when I lie
to my
kids
and five
and six
they
catch me.

� David LaBounty

---

FAIR GAME

You might find yourself here,
you might find a version
of yourself here, a version
you didn't want the world
to see and I would like
to say I'm sorry but I'm
far from sorry. Users
like me are never sorry.
And it's not just you;
nothing is sacred,
not even my wife and
children and I will take
your misery and joy
and shape it and write
it and it may not be
what you want to see
but that's how it goes,
because everything
is personal,
everything
is fair game.

� David LaBounty