for alicia. in memory of bernadette mayer.
we went to the bar with no men. it was dirty cuz the late-night shift was lazy
and anyway i was on the late-night shift
but we were at the bar with no men
and since i worked a double shift the night before, i helped myself to a bottle of gin
we were talking about the war, hopefully the last one but we were never sure
but anyway we were talking about the last one. and how dirty it got? how it was all in people’s minds too and they couldn’t even think of a bar with no men, cuz it was so simple but actually pretty hard to pull off.
sandy adjusted a lamp near me and patted me on the head
“you’ve been very diligent slacking off, have a raise.”
i told her she was sweet and we began the political education unit on transgressions
which yes involved many things and there was much to discuss. who wronged who that week, yes this was very much a work in progress. so yes we went to work unpacking the various things that needed unpacking, the support networks we needed to deploy to which families at which date, who needed to go out on work assignment, think about what they had done and present a poem on the subject, whereupon their case would be swiftly administered with no errors or bias
and the question of whether re-entry was feasible/ desirable / requested or denied by the affected parties
after a long rap sesh and note-taking, we went upstairs, made ravenous love and promptly conked out.
Aida Rends 