Rubber dolls are lovers.
Camoflouage is fashionable.
Armpit hair is dyed.
Clean water is scarce.
Cable programs are news.
Politicians are leaders.
Hot pockets are food.
Trump is a genius.
Country is music.
...and we wonder why
our society is lost.

-Ron Gavalik

The days she went mad,
her eyes danced in their sockets
the way a lion paces inside its cage.
Her fingernails, man,
they dug through flesh
like the last few jagged shards
of her soul, or sharp regrets
of an unfulfilled life.

That bartender poured my bourbon
and took an interest in my life.
'What's wrong, pal?
You can tell me.
I have all the answers.'
'Great,' I said. 'I don't know
any of the questions.'
For the rest of the night,
he left me with my typer
and silently refilled
the bourbon.

-Ron Gavalik

The clerk behind the coffee counter,
she stares out the window
onto the sunny street, lost in thought.
Her half smile on that young face
is an art exhibit of a daydream
about a possible future.
An old woman at a nearby table,
she stares out the same window.
Her eyes glossed over,
they indicate she's remembering
the good moments long past.
The coffee shop daydreamers
have much in common.

-Ron Gavalik

At this sushi joint,
she searched for the words
to describe her dinner.
‘It's heaven,’ she said, ‘Yes, heaven.’
Call me a simpleton, but divinity
on Earth is the sweet tinge of bourbon,
the smoke of an acid 60 gauge
that rolls over the tongue,
and the music of Pink Floyd
with the lights off.

-Ron Gavalik

On a construction site
as the sun rose over the hill,
I watched as my fellow applicants
humbly and quietly lined up
for meaningless labor jobs.
Those men, I figured,
they have fat wives
and beautiful marriages.
I couldn't bring myself
to stand behind them,
and so I walked off.

-Ron Gavalik

A sparrow landed in a city park
near a black cat sprawled out in the grass.
The bird began to chirp, chirp, chirp,
in the way drunkards ramble in bars.
Clearly irritated, the cat crouched low,
its ears back, ready to pounce.
After about a minute, the cat relaxed.
It must have figured killing the bird
would ruin the mellow mood of the day.
A moment later, the bird took off
and vanished in the trees.
The cat flopped itself
back into the grass.

-Ron Gavalik