De Facto Threshold (The Daily)

De Facto Threshold
Was supposed to have been
A poem
About falling just short
You know,
In life.

But wouldn't you know it...

"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"
Just came on the speakers
Built
Into the walls
Of The Daily--
A coffee shop--
In Bozeman
Montana
United States
Of America
North America
Northwestern Quadrisphere
And now, and now it's a bubblegum locale
And I can't hold onto failure
As a subject

Well...

Today must be the day--
The "someday"--
In The Daily
Because it seems love has found us
Us and our recycled cups
Wrapped around lattés
And jasmine teas.

Well aren't we the fortunate ones?

De Facto Threshold
Was going to be about frustration
But Journey didn't want it that way.
Not in The Daily.
Not today.
Why should I write about that
If anxious Mr. Hagar
Can't drive
55?

Mr. Bungle just sat down.
He wants to know
Where all that extra money went.
"So do I.
Same with everyone."
I reply.
"Dumb kid."
He says.

I don't get mad, though.

I thought today would be a dirge.
Turns out it's a sugar-coated
Power ballad.

If The Daily had wheels
Don't you just bet it could go
Anywhere?
At midnight?

Sure it could.
And if I, and the quiet old couple
And the neo-hippy barista girl
And the Dutch businessmen
Speaking British English
In America
At The Daily
On College
In Bozeman
Don't stop believing...
We'll find ourselves (when we leave)
In Cairo
Egypt
Africa
Northeastern Quadrisphere
At a supermarket
And we'll play Air Supply
Over the loudspeakers
And Allen Ginsberg
And Walt Whitman
Will wonder,
"What the fuck?"

But that's not what the poem
"De Facto Threshold"
Was supposed to have been about.

 

(November 15, 2009)