Terminal Holiday Poem by Kevin Patrick

Pulling the beer bottle out of my foot
I stuttered haphazardly down the street
leaving a fresh trails of blood drops,
like leopard spots on the shoulder of the sidewalk
proud that in my excruciating pain
I was given the faceless cement character



It was quarter after 9 when I made to the 7-Eleven
a few itinerant teenagers were in their congregation
I had come to renew my holy spirit
only to discover they were out of hostess
typical example of man's earthly existence
that life never gives you a break
when all you want is a cupcake


Slim Jim as a consolation prize
my swollen taste buds began to realize
the oxymoron of a store called convenience
when the prices alone begged to differ
Just this Saturday I saw a little fat boy
get run over by an Ice Cream Truck
most people clutched and gasped in horror
you could see it with good humor results


I passed a bus terminal with graffiti exhibited
the commuter's emotions all grindly inhibited
solemn faces carved in fine granite grimaces
their dreams slowly torn by the wait of public service


Up on Bank Street a taxi attempted to beat the stampede of feet
a little yellow bull tried to make me an amateur madator
I screamed suggesting he learn driver's decorum
signaling politely with my tall middle finger
so that the memory of me would linger
hates good for burning calories


watching Christians preaching doomsday
poor college kids conducting surveys


and a redneck with rats' tail,
raving with a ratchet in Rupert

Later on, I got a text from curly Cassy
she always made a mess look classy
said she was being stalked again
by her imaginary boyfriend
she had tried hard to break up with him
but he wouldn't disappear quietly
said she was going to get fitted with
a new jacket with long sleeves
the kind that nurses tie from the back
and don't let you out until your polite again


And then my thoughts turned to the world
And I measured things to their perspective
The rise in totalitarianism In China and Russia
The children in concentration camps in America
climate change, and the earths asphyxiation
And the inevitability of human extinction
But nothing made me madder and louder
Then the thought of walking into a Wal-Mart


And in my hour of need
through the crack of a haggard sun
a rainbow emerged
all decked in grey




But that alright
cause I now live life
As a terminal holiday