people

There always was
this urge
to make oneself tough and perfect
like a gunslinger
but when you are waiting
at a snobbish country club
where nobody likes you
and then someone you love
calls up to say "I don't like you"
it is difficult
not to cry in public
after giving the cook a twenty dollar tip
because, hey, you were a cook too.

the longshoreman cared for some reason
and came out with a bottle of tequila
that you both broke in the parking lot,
he was even willing
to discuss time travel and metaphysics,
and then you discovered
that he had seen somebody die that day
so you emphasized immensely
and had a good time
going dancing at La Cita in downtown LA
despite even getting kicked out of the club
for wearing cowboy boots.

i want to say something
about people in general
like how they seem so different to us
and yet the same,
something awful
something terrible
something Beautiful and sometimes
they are shocking
in just how goddamn down to earth and true and human they can be.