Saturday, January 23, 2016

Jon Bennett- Three Poems


The Press

“You win two in a row
bet $3 on the third
and so on,
but as soon as you lose
drop back down to $2,
it’s called a ‘press.’”
The guy looks like an IT nerd
but he’s a pro gambler
and makes so much dough
he spends half the year
following Taylor fucking Swift.
“There’s always risk,” he says
after we take a big loss,
“after all - it is gambling.”
Fine by me,
the 9 to 5 bullshit  has crushed me
and I’m just looking
for something
to finish the job.



You Can’t Win
 
My friend comes and takes me to dinner.
“Let’s talk about your show,” he says,
“...you sucked.  I’d like to tell you
I feel bad saying it, but
I’ve been carrying it around for weeks.”
He’d been carrying it around
and then he gave it to me.
Two German girls out of his league
were at the next table and he started
chatting them up, unencumbered as he was.
I do all this fucking art, I figure
something has to give
either me or the world
but I’ll never give up, although
an old man
saying, ‘I’ll never give up’
is almost the same as saying
he already has.



Mr. Fix-It Can’t Fix Himself
 
Her eyes are red
and her pupils are dilated.
“I was passed out,” she says,
“A. came over
like he was supposed to
but when I didn’t answer
he drove his Harley
into the back of that truck…”
Mr. Fix-It could fix anything
pinball machines, ATMs,
cash registers, bikes, cars,
but when your drunk
at 3am
and the thing that’s broken
is your heart
only luck
or the dawn
can save you.



Jon Bennett is a Pushcart Award nominated writer and musician living in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood.  His novel, "The Unfat," speculative sci-fi involving autism and obesity, as well as links to his music on Pandora and Spotify, are available through his website at www.jonbennett.info


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