Improvise

I like the zipper
the slow pull
the quick zip
the sound before
the blossom and bloom

but she had buttons
three silver buttons
they slid slyly
through the slits
like a portent
-improvise

a good cigarette,
talking cherry smooth,
will smoke your ass
for eight bucks
and tax

and a good beer,
talking ahh slippery sweet barley!
means overtime and cheaper diapers

but cheap beer is
a twist off
and no one bums L & M's
cept bums
so improvise

I've tried
the straight and narrow,
directions, manuals
and bibles
til my eyes bled
goblets of sorrow

I've measured twice
and still cut thrice
and obeyed the laws
to my own destruction
in stubborn strangle

I find now my crooked trips
through life's bramble
are weighed with mercy
cuz my flailings and faults
make you the hero,
or so you believe,
-so be it

I could fish
in rain and sun blister,
I could golf in a hurricane's bluster,
and I could love you
as you want
and think I should

or I can accept that failure
goes down better
with cheap beer and cigarettes
and I'll never be anyone's hero
so I improvise

~rick