999 Z25

covered Sinatra
well they said
they don’t need anyone
their mothers
disagreed
me
I wondered
why there were so many
love songs
when they didn’t have anyone
in the first place

I didn’t know the right thing
in the first place

told them not to worry
the crooners will fix
with whiskey
cigarettes
or some
I knew
cocaine in the bathroom

me
I didn’t know the right thing
in the first place

I felt coffee and electricity
the things they hid in the garage
the dogs they kept locked up
on chains
in fences

I never knew the right thing
to do or how to fix
in the first place

they gnawed away on their hands
fingertips until they
felt they could ask the questions
they needed
maybe
it was just a fix
but I didn’t know

I was kept in the garage
with a rusted fence
and a broken down
motorcycle