overcome; underdeliver; breakdown; be unemployed; get out of my life
she walked up with a wagging tale, held my hand
“Hi, what can I help you with.”
“My mom is chasing me in a flaming blimp. I’m stressin’. Bitch she never lets me do what I want.”
Put my mouth against hers; I didn’t know how to flinch.
Set down my mixed fruit bowl as she dragged on a minute conversation to twenty.
It wasn’t charming. I hated it. Every time I talked she talked over me
A scuba diver dropped in from the ceiling tiles. He grabbed my hand to save me from the minivan driving twenty-five
“You weren’t safe. Get out of your house every once in a while. You’ll learn.”
I didn’t know what he meant. We were six feet above six feet when he dropped me in a dive bar. Landed at a table with beaded beard boys.
“I like the leather,” I said. They started to show their own hide.
Nothing I hadn’t seen before a lot of things I hadn’t felt before.
I lost a lot of weight over the next few weeks.
At the store the next month I noticed they didn’t have my size
so I left in my oversized jeans.
On my way out the guy with the cup screamed “What’s up, man.”
I just kept walking worried about my wallet when I noticed it fell out when I changed.
I decided that pub wasn’t worth going back to. I went home packed up; went to my woman. When I got to her place she was sitting in her car staring forward at the steering wheel. I opened the passenger door. Tried to give her one last kiss on the lips before I skipped town. She was loose-lipped; unresponsive. Broke character and said, “You’ve never been there for me.” Threw my wallet at me and said take back what’s important to you.
A day later I decided I should eat. Pulled out my wallet in front of a taco truck. Then remembered the fond times with my old girlfriend and her new car.
She always had an awful memory.