Jon Anderson

Here you will find thePoemListen, Leoof poet Jon Anderson

Listen, Leo

Listen, Leo, remember the lifeboat we pilfered from what you said was an abandoned garage sale, 1442 Columbus, not the explorer, the street? Last night I came to, retired to the basement to ponder my position on circumspection, the fate of the cruel & unusual, & drink until I passed out. I had my underwear on & my .45. I was planning to feast on that bag of Chicken Shack backs & beaks we got at the place that went broke, put my legs up on a six-pack & drift. Anyway, this eerie glow started emanating from the sewage pool, mostly greenish. It winked so I shot it, Leo, I've had enough! Then this long low lump along the wall near the bulkhead started toward me, so slow I had time to think. Went to the attic & came back down bearing Mr. Double-Aught. Leo, I perforated the lifeboat. It has become a dead one, incapable, now, of surfacing above its circumstance. We can never return to it now. It's gone. Gone like the snow. Gone like I got a little behind. It's a sad world, Leo, we fell, like yesterday's laundry into the tub, let's face a fact. There's nobody left like us. I got a weathered pate, you got a ticket to Nova Scotia & I'm swimming beside the boat. When we gotta die, we're gone. Leo, I confess, I adore your face. Give me a little papa kiss. Give me a muscle up. Leo, there's nobody left like us.