James Mirarchi- A Poem

MONKEYS

Sam Scun jettisoned friendships

Like carcass bones

Generally

He would shoot them with a slingshot

Into the sentimental bonfire of the past

 

Some specific friendships

He would stuff down

His sink’s garbage disposable

Jamming them in

With the handle of a wooden spoon

While they were being ground up

And making the most horrible sound

He would blithely listen to his iPod

A leftover tendril would momentarily

Slither out of the drain

But Sam Scun would

Stomp on it with his foot

Like it was some vexing snake

 

Some other friendships

He would flush down his toilet

Eventually stopping it up

With their feisty spirits

Sam Scun had to use a plunger

To unclog them from the pipes 

Sometimes

He would even find

A mirage of his friends’ faces

Angrily floating in the toilet water

 

One day

A conscience suddenly rose

Over Sam Scun’s horizon

And he became severely sunburned

By the light of guilt

 

An entitled douche bag

Who projected himself onto the world

Who scapegoated and blackmailed his friends

Sam Scun now did a 180

Turning his bedroom into a purgatory cell

 

He installed a huge cage in the corner

Filled with jilted friendships

In the form of red feral monkeys

 

He invited them to torment him

With their screaming and cage-rattling

Before going to bed

He even left a key to his dreams with them

 

Every night

With this key

The monkeys would burst from their bars

And quarter Sam Scun on his bed 

One juggled with his body parts

Another jump roped with his intestines

Another played catch with his head

And yet another drew a hopscotch board with his blood

 

Each morning

Sam Scun would wake feeling cleansed

It was not long

Before he felt completely scoured of his sins

 

The monkeys were no longer required

So he replaced them with a pet kitten

And started treating

All his new friends much better

 

First published in Subliminal Interiors Literary Magazine in September 2012.  

 

 

BIO
James Mirarchi grew up in Queens, New York. In addition to his poetry collections, Venison and Dervish, he has written and directed short films, which have played festivals. His poems have appeared in several independent literary journals. Links to his work can be found @: www.thehydratedpoet.blogspot.com/