Your Waiter This Evening Will Be . . .
by Francine DuBois

a steve mcqueen-eyed alcoholic
with steve mcqueen-cool stories about
walking from knoxville to nashville,
hitchhiking from detroit (where his
baby left him) to akron (where he
left his new baby) to st. louis.

it is late, and these midnight hours
are his most vulnerable, when his soul
yearns to tell the thirteen-year-old
runaways about the time he killed a man
in reno. but he's all out of lies tonight,
and his feet ache, and his heart aches,
and he just wants to go home and listen
to loretta lynn, get drunk, and cry,
silently rubbing his dog's temples.

 

Francine's Version -- Hezekiah's Version -- Inspiration
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