Poet Joshua Clover and 11 Students May Face Prison Time

The Way I Work
by john bennett

Slapped down
flat out of energy
at 2 p.m. I
wake up at 5 &
think it’s
the next morning.
I stumble off
the bed fully dressed
in my stocking feet &
crash on in to
the bathroom.
Halfway through
taking a piss
I get hip to
the fact it’s
not morning. A tall glass of
distilled water in the
kitchen, a lit cigarette &
a search for my shoes.
Back in the bathroom
cold water on my
face & a
comb through my hair,
pick up the
yellow pad &
head out the door.

It’s a bad time
to be driving.
I’m probably more
dangerous than a
drunk.

I have the lights timed.
If someone slow gets
in front of me
it has a
bad impact on my
mood. I override it &
make it down to
the drive-thru
for coffee.
By this time
random thoughts have
begun interacting with
chance strands of
matter &
I’ve lit my
second cigarette.
I get my fix
turn on the radio &
drive up to the hill,
the internal/external
interactions
picking up steam.

Whoever’s
on the hill
determines where I
park, sometimes even
if I park. If what’s
up there
drives me back down
again I’m not
fit company but
usually this
doesn’t happen–
by this time
my mind is
swallowing everything
like a
Black Hole.

You can see why I
have difficulty getting
what I write
published & why they
refuse to let me
teach college,
let alone first grade.