A Couple of Shots. By Puma Perl

A couple of shots later

We wind up onstage singing a Stones song

A couple more and we’re leaning against the wall

I ask how are you and we talk of blood moons,

full eclipses, and loss, why lately it always comes

back to loss, buildings falling, streets caving,

dying alone while we bang our heads uselessly,

pockets too small to carry everybody’s keys.

It only takes a shot to remember and five or six

to forget, we stop at four, a number good enough

but not great, and we are all on stage like Judy

or Lenny or Billie, trying on the truth if only for

a minute, a couple of shots later and we are backed

against the wall again, singing a Ramones song while

the full moon thinks about waning but decides to

hang around, just for another couple of shots.

                   Photo by Ellen Berman

Puma Perl is a poet and writer, with five solo collections in print. The most recent is Birthdays Before and After (Beyond Baroque Books, 2019.) She is the producer/creator of Puma’s  Pandemonium, which brings spoken word together with rock and roll, and she performs regularly with her band Puma Perl and Friends. She’s received three New York Press Association awards in recognition of her journalism, and is the recipient of the 2016 Acker Award in the category of writing.