Ben Ohmart - Poem

my best friend watches the women work out
on cable
during that hour he lives when he's not working
I keep telling him to quit, the government loves
to support you
it does
not even the schedule makes him change
I say that they're on All morning
at Least 6 different shows
and that's just on the sports channel
12 to 1
he's fine

me, I know that life isn't worth the going rate
just to be able to shop around
and go into deep debt...
I know I'm worth more than that 5 an hour
if I could get it
When I want a pair of the black wide shoes
that are the most comfortable things I've ever had on
I buy them
I charge them
I walk around the lake out by 690
the joggers, the view when you come around again
I laugh and leer at the old folks who waited 
far too long
I stop and maybe have a dog over by the benches
with the cash back they give you
time to watch and chew like your mother taught
and wash it down
don't smoke, drink drugs, but then
I don't not eat flesh and pick up my trash
but I have fun with it
I get erections and I pass museums
and I order what Wendy's wants me to have and I
read cartoon books and I listen to other people's music
and I lust after women I really wouldn't want to please and I
understand what you're going through and I get tickets
and would rather not put up with war and eat with my mouth open
and stand before baseball games for a song I really don't believe in and
light matches just because and see curtains and loose quarters
that's life