Saturday, April 17, 2021

duncan by John Grochalski

duncan is running around the kettle bar 

with his sister olive


they are screaming and yelling 


while people are

starting in early on the day’s drunk


duncan is three and vacant

olive is pushing two at best


she has a set of pipes on her

that could raise the dead


there are no other children in the bar 

because it’s a bar


duncan’s old man is your garden variety domestic asshole


with his receding hairline and dad gut

hidden under a faded football jersey


he apologies to my wife and i

when duncan and olive smack into our stools

for the third time


but he doesn’t mean it


because his america counts more than mine


dad is enjoying his stolen afternoon beer

with his bros too much

to worry about duncan and olive 

killing other people’s time


he’s too caught up in the entitlement of being a parent 


to see his kids 

for the screaming creeps they are


because duncan and olive are so precious

their shit doesn’t stink


they’re the zenith of what he’ll accomplish in this world

other than watching another NFL season


ignorance that he’ll pass on 

like family jewels and disease


boutique named monsters free to run around a bar 


screaming and yelling 

and raising holy hell on a monday afternoon


like they’re at a playground in a park


duncan in his rookie-of-the-year t-shirt

olive in her plaid dress


smacking their heads off the worn bar 


olive screaming bloody murder

duncan prat falling and farting


the bartender giving us free shots in apology


as dad of the year 

gets up to take a piss


but not before

he comes over to the bar


to order all of his bros

another blessed round.   




 John Grochalski is the author of the poetry collections, The Noose Doesn’t Get Any Looser After You Punch Out (Six Gallery Press 2008), Glass City (Low Ghost Press, 2010), In The Year of Everything Dying (Camel Saloon, 2012), Starting with the Last Name Grochalski (Coleridge Street Books, 2014), and The Philosopher’s Ship (Alien Buddha Press, 2018). He is also the author of the novels, The Librarian (Six Gallery Press 2013), and Wine Clerk (Six Gallery Press 2016).  Grochalski currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, where the garbage can smell like roses if you wish on it hard enough.   

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