Preparations Poem by Robert Brendan

Before I sat down to
take the advice of
the waitress at the bar
and watch a movie
veg out
relax
I prepared something
for myself
you see
I'm one of those fools
who need things
all the time
for a while it was dope
then other dope
then weed
then dope
then meth
then dope
and through all that
always the companion
it was cigarettes
now
there is only booze
and lots of it
and pot
and lots of it
but last night
before I started the
movie
a long movie
three hours wide
I got the pot
and the bong
there was effort
there
because my back
hurt so much
and when the movie started
I didn’t smoke any
and when it got going
I didn’t pack any
and when I hit the remote
by accident
forcing me to fiddle
to get to the part
I was at
I still didn’t smoke
any
by the time the whole movie
was finished
I had drank no booze
smoked no weed
tweaked no meth
and puffed no smokes

nor had I called out
to my friend
who has it
for morphine

thanks to the waitress
and me