For Mingus the Cat

We were united in our mutual weirdness

co-conspirators
writing partners

If you were a person
you’d be an installation artist
who wore nothing but Hawaiian shirts
and drank Night Train
out of a bowler cap

You saw the street
You saw the good life

You cared nothing for either
and took it to your death rattle

I would’ve traded a city block for you

but that’s not how life works

so
I do the next best thing
and leave the door to the attic open
when I write

like Jews
leave the front door open
for Elijah

in the hopes that you’ll wander up
and perch your dirty asshole on the railing
like old times

and watch me chug black coffee

and write through dirty glasses

swearing at stanza after stanza

missing you

I know it’s weird
I know it makes no sense

but humans never do

like the street
like the good life

like an empty attic
and some silly lines

© 2016 Lee Kitzis

SUPER INSOMNIA FUN TIME!!!

insomnia's an interesting animal.
it's the only time when it's logical to chase a beer with a cup of coffee.
i'm typing this at 6:28 a.m.
countdown one hour 'til i leave for my shit job.
hop on the train with well-rested idiots going to panera bread or artichoke festivals or whatever crap people do up before 8 a.m. on a saturday.
sorry, no poems this time.
just my old friend trying to clamp my eyes shut while he wires my brain.
it's 6:31 a.m.
good morning.
goddamnit.

The Best Job on the Planet

I wake up at 3 p.m.
avoiding all the daytime judge shows
with just enough time for a cup of coffee and a quick peek
at the women in scarves at the local produce stand
before the reruns

and I have no problem with taking a beer shit
as the world rages outside

disappointment in coffee bars
elation in drugstores
murder stocks a person of the week

Mark bought the good kind of toilet paper
double-roll with aloe
that’s the great part about having another drunk as a roommate
always good toilet paper

I call in
to file for more unemployment
cook brussel sprouts
check baseball trades
and crack an Old Style

I’ll get a job when I have to start using the store brand

that’s about the only literary advice I can give

© 2008 Lee Kitzis

Racial Harmony

It was Thursday
hot
with nothing to do
so I took a cup of iced coffee onto the porch
and sat down to read
or I should say re-read
some Ferlinghetti
getting about three pages into it
before remembering why
I didn’t like Ferlinghetti
when I heard a yell
and a gentle screech
and looked down to see a fat Mexican
getting out of a plumbing van
a black homeless guy coming towards him
saying “You almost hit him!”
and in front of the van was an elderly homeless white guy
asleep in front of a recycling can in the alley
“You almost hit him!” the black guy said
“He shouldn’t have been sleeping in the middle of the alley!”
the fat Mexican said
and the elderly white bum just slept
the black bum saying you almost hit him
the fat Mexican saying he shouldn’t have been sleeping there
and the white bum sleeping there in front of the recycling can
till finally the black bum left only to turn around
and head back towards the fat Mexican plumber who was entering his gate
and apologetically say “You probably didn’t see him”
“No I didn’t” said the Mexican
and that was that
the fat Mexican went home
the black bum left
and the white bum slept
and Ferlinghetti was still terrible
and the old white bum slept
for another five minutes
got up
puked
took a piss
and sat back down
till another neighbor came by and said
“You should go”
so the old guy walked down the alley
to the next one
and the other neighbor
took his groceries in
and fixed a sandwich
and just then
another neighbor came out
to water her daffodils or posies or some flower
humming a sunny song
on a sunny day
for all of us

© 2008 Lee Kitzis