Friday Afternoon Poem
FRIDAY AFTERNOON POEM
by Ryan Ritchie
yeah
it’s been a rough one.
one thing after another
and
pretty soon
you’re wondering
when the abuse will finally end.
you come up for air
just long enough to
get smacked down again,
asking yourself
when your life
became a real life version
of that game kids play,
the one with the mallet
and the gophers popping
up their heads.
but there is good news
buried deep below
the pile of anguish
and that news is
that today is friday.
in both the literal
and metaphorical sense,
tomorrow is a new day.
you can start anew,
see your friends
or maybe make new ones.
but before you do all that,
tonight you are allowed to have fun,
the type you used to have
before that old bastard
named life
started dumping all his
problems on you.
tonight you can
wear your favorite shirt,
kiss a stranger
(or maybe someone who isn’t),
be totally off-key in your rendition of
“i will survive,”
tell your annoying roommate exactly
what you think of him or her
and
take a walk at two thirty a.m.
and if you’re a little wary that
your downtrodden motor might not
remember how to rev itself up,
the even better news is,
that’s what alcohol is for.