Booze Can

Christmas, 2004 / No. 13

risk another film-noir evening

licking the glorious underbelly

in artland, where everybody

is a nobody who does something.

another manic adventure with

fast women & dangerous men

fuelled by booze and the need for speed

and recreational sedation

hell-bent through another warm winter nite

to the end of the Underworld.

men with headsets and all-business shades

smart in tricky ways, sleight-of-hand kind,

cool as an old-time speakeasy, Joe-sent-me

same thing with different clothes.

Inside-scene type of lifestyle—

watching the sunrise is not a rule, neither an exception,

sleep all day and moan for a couple of hours,

get excited and dressed up and do it all over again.

none of these people have jobs, and it would appear

that they don’t need them.

ten per cent of being cool is knowing when to shut up.

the rest is knowing where to sit.