- Keith Banner
Right before Going in
you can put up with anything,
says the guy outside the dialysis
place, some lady he's with
lighting his
salem
one of those days when
color is just plain gone
like it's been shut up inside its own
little purse
and there are animals
on the periphery
brown deranged and slightly mangy
but good-hearted
on the edges of the blacktop
not hiding, just
sick of putting up with shit
and that guy
there smoking in his
wheelchair
waiting to go in
there's this strange intention
in every little throb
now, this
momentous
nothing, and yet still he is
sucking in
metholated smoke
that evergreen candy vapor
letting it go
a glamour from dry purple lips
that white cloud
churning out of a
chimney at xmas
in some
storybook in a thriftstore
let's enjoy this moment
let's understand this moment
right before going in
