Caesar Salad

It’s 5:15 in the morning at the Horseshoe Casino

I’ve been grinding away for 12 straight hours
at the 3/6 limit table

Donkeys with Bluetooth headsets
slackjaws Serbian loudmouths
beauty queens playing the game for the first time
the whole spectrum of Tuesday gamblers
comes and goes

Once it gets down to 3-handed and a fat dealer named Roberto
I decide to call it a day

I lost $1

A night like this can’t end any other way

I get on the 5:30 shuttle back to Chinatown
and take a seat towards the back

Nothing lets you know where your life is headed
better than being on a dark bus filled w/ hookers
and elderly Chinese men in windbreakers
at 5:31 in the morning on a Wednesday

I’m a winner
I think

The sound of a container cracking behind me
the smell of Caesar dressing
the lip smacking
the guttural breathing

of course

I try to ignore it
but can’t
I wish I was Buddhist
and not obsessive

then something occurs to me
the lip smacking hasn’t stopped for two straight minutes
the breathing seems to be getting heavier

a female cough and a gag

Now I really wish I was Buddhist

Could the Dalai Lama ignore a guy getting a blow job
while he eats a Caesar salad?

I get up
covering my peripherals
and move even further to the back

I find a seat
and sit down

I’m still a winner
I think

only this time
I have a chance to laugh

© 2009 Lee Kitzis

Chicago in July

When the fireworks go off

and scatter all the rats
and the cockroaches
at Pulaski Park

and barista girls
lay worn and pantiless
in sundresses

drinking warm Miller Lite
by cracked windows

and the homeless
nestle in Lincoln Park back alleys

next to abandoned generators

and inoperable dozers

on a city
of useless machinery

where young couples grocery shop
and kiss hands

and a pitcher
is always losing
on one side of town

where Puerto Rican gangs
mug Buddhists for food

and old men
lumber across streets
at 2 a.m.

kittens shit in alleys

and the heat is too much

the old folks home
has three lights on

waiting

and the cops aren’t coming

© 2008 Lee Kitzis