2 poems by John Grochalski

such trivial delights

i watch the young ones
dangle on street corners

girls with tight asses
and black souls
that’ll cause damage
to dumb boys and old men

then i close
the wooden shade
forgetting the world

i pop a blood blister on my toe
the red juice squirting where it will

i can’t think
of what else to do
being home sick from work

so i jack-off to starlets
captured on internet
video freeze frames

nude scenes taken from movies
i’ll never see

because the good parts
just landed on the floor
with a dull splat

and movies are too expensive
these days
for such trivial delights


hypocrite

i wake her up
she tells me that she has
a headache
i offer to get her aspirin
but she doesn’t want them.

her stomach feels empty
she says.

i turn on the light

i tell her
she could be hungover

we went to the bar
last night

i told her that she
drank most of the wine
when we got home.

i just kept filling her glass.

don’t tell me
she says, sitting up
i have a headache
don’t sit there and tell me
what i did wrong.

i was just guessing
i say

then we sit there in silence.

i feel like a prick.
three days ago
i was kneeling on the bathroom floor
vomiting up bile
from a night of binging
on wine and beer.

i vomited until a part
of my chest turned black and blue.
now here i am
the judge and juror.

do you want some aspirin?
i ask again.

no
she says.
i just need to take a shower.

she gets up off the bed
to run the water
while i sit there
in the dim light
trying to remember
if we bought enough cat food
or not.