Time to crack open that bottle
the previous tenants bequeathed to us.
We can drink to whatever you want -
lack of sleep, importune prayers,
another day of freedom from the landlord’s
fretful knock - then tumble into bed,
our bones loosened, our minds in happy
disarray, despite, or perhaps because,
it’s now light, and there’s a kind of war
outside our window, and the invisible sniper
in the gaunt bell tower is always watching
with bloodshot eyes for a clean shot.
Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of eight poetry chapbooks, including Tomorrowland (2008) from Achilles Chapbooks and Love Is a UFO (2009) from Pudding House. He has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize and twice for the Best of the Net anthology. Know more about him at http://apocalypsemambo.blogspot.com/
