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America the Beautiful
I'm on my last pack of cigarettes
And I only have two dollars left.
Last night I saw bugs
Crawling across my floor.
Little bugs with large wings
That couldn't even fly yet
They were so young;
Just hatched.
My check engine light has come on
On my car and the rear
Turn signal is busted out
From an accident I had recently.
But I have poetry, and solitude,
And as a writer I have
A lack of alcoholism,
Which is a plus.
So it isn't all bad.
It could be worse.
It could be a holocaust, as
They say in prison.
It could be prison.
It could be North Korea or
It could be three thousand
Years ago
Or it could be the civil war
And I could be facing a saw.
Then again, I could have been
An explorer
Or a pirate of ancient times
Or the Buddha,
Or I could have quarterbacked the Super Bowl
Or flown to the moon with Buzz Aldrin.
But I am me. 38
And unemployed and loveless.
The godfather of nothing.
Just an average Joe telling you
To hang in there, kid.
It gets better as you age.
The women get better.
The work gets better.
The cops get better.
Authority gets better.
You get better.
And though it can
Be daunting
To hear people half your age
Sing the songs on the radio
And watch TV personalities
Who make you feel
Like a part of the geriatric set,
It isn't all that bad.
And I guess the real criminals,
The masterminds,
Are the ones who make the laws
But you even make peace with that
Over time.
And though you may cross your fingers
When you read the Constitution
Or recite the pledge of allegiance
Because you know
That if enough money is riding
On it
All that
Can go out the window,
You know, deep down, that though
It's the worst
System
In the world
There is nothing
Better.
Or if bugs crawl across
Your floor
And you can't afford
Your next pack of cigarettes,
You do realize that
There is no better place than here,
In Ameirca, this country.
There is no better time than now;
Except, perhaps,
What's still to come.
