All those others
Standing around

Sardonic smiles
And obsidian eyes

My back bent and breaking
Under the strain

Of Fender Strat
And Blues Deluxe

And a hundred chords,
And riffs and licks

Earlier, the glances,
The nod.
The flirt

And hints at  even
more than that

But in the end
A key to a room

Where the janitor sleeps

Vacuum cleaner
screaming

Against my thin door

Touch or tether
Balanced on a blade
One or the other

You can't have both
And you can't have neither

So pay your money
And take your chance

It's all downhill
From here

Order at the first window
Pay at the second

See the man
With the rubber nose
Put your poem in a sack

With packets of modifiers
A napkin or two

Just in case of
Leaking ink
Or escape of verb

And a diet stanza
To wash it down

Sleep came out of its box
And got me

Dragged me half paralyzed
Into dim dank hallways
Of dreaming

Such a pleasant word,
Dreaming

Sometimes it's not

A speck of rain
Dripping off leaves

But we soldier on anyway
Faces forward
Eyes blinking

Into the rain

Just before the nod
A glimpse of oncoming dream
But no way to stop it

Or dodge it

Or even slow it down