Wherever you hear about a drinking
problem
you expect the man to be
violent and vulgar and turn abusive
and destructive
well
it wasn’t the case with him
There was a drinking problem there
for sure
but all it cursed him with
was sleep and sometimes
verses
He’d start writing after
drinking
But he was a kind man and a great
lover
and his wife had a hard time
convincing her family and friends
and neighbors
that a man who has a separate trashcan
only for bottles and beer cans
is not a man who strikes his wife,
not even with words
Well, none of
them read his poetry
and by the time he died of
cirrhosis it was
too late
You can’t scold a dead man for
having written thousands upon thousands
of pages of
splatter-punk gore and abuse fantasies
involving his wife
her family
her friends
neighbors
and everyone he knew, including minors