but if they do

kicking with Marcy in the alley
buds in ears blasting Beatles
old-school
but still got a kick

sweating like a couple smoked pigs
this heat’s a bitch
in another week
Marcy goes to Iraq
or somewhere
she’s a volunteer

my life is black and blue
she told them
they’ll feed me
house me
college me
they told her
she signed up in a snap

in another week
just me and the alley
and the dogs
the dogs sniffing
coffee grounds and orange rinds
all the crap the people pile here

rank’s got a whole new meaning
over there, Marcy says

she says
a lot of things
but I believe her when
she says
they can’t kill her
Saddam’s the has-been
she says
but, she says, but
if they do,
dump me in the alley
dogs need the meat

first published in Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar, 2013

Tony Press lives near San Francisco and tries to pay attention. Even when drinking hot chocolate in Oaxaca, Mexico, or in Bristol, England. Even then. If you look for them, you can find many of his stories and not as many of his poems. Recent poems appear in The Lake; Misty Mountain; Right Hand Pointing; and One Sentence Poems.