A man walks into a bar and says: Take my wifeplease. So you do. You take her out into the rain and you fall in love with her and she leaves you and youre desolate.Youre on your back in your undershirt, a broken man on an ugly bedspread, staring at the water stains on the ceiling. And you can hear the man in the apartment above you taking off his shoes.You hear the first boot hit the floor and youre looking up, youre waiting because you thought it would follow, you thought there would be some logic, perhaps, something to pull it all together but here we are in the weeds again, here we arein the bowels of the thing: your world doesnt make sense. And then the second boot falls. And then a third, a fourth, a fifth. A man walks into a bar and says: Take my wifeplease. But you take him instead.You take him home, and you make him a cheese sandwich, and you try to get his shoes off, but he kicks you and he keeps kicking you. You swallow a bottle of sleeping pills but they dont work. Boots continue to fall to the floor in the apartment above you.You go to work the next day pretending nothing happened. Your co-workers ask if everythings okay and you tell them youre just tired. And youre trying to smile. And theyre trying to smile.A man walks into a bar, you this time, and says: Make it a double. A man walks into a bar, you this time, and says: Walk a mile in my shoes.A man walks into a convenience store, still you, saying: I only wanted something simple, something generic But the clerk tells you to buy something or get out.A man takes his sadness down to the river and throws it in the river but then hes still leftwith the river. A man takes his sadness and throws it away but then hes still left with his hands.
About This Quote
About Richard Siken
Richard Siken was a contemporary American poet, painter, and filmmaker. Richard Siken is an American poet, painter, and filmmaker. He is the author of the collection Crush, which won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition in 2004. Read more on Wikipedia →
Themes
- Poetry — The art of language, rhythm, and emotional expression