Disease of a Paranoid Mind by Colin Gee
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Been drinking too hard
for too long
and I got the fear
as the Irish boys say
three days in on a bender
Got the fear
got the bends
bloody gums
the Tommy Johns
There are signs for urologists
and radiologists
family doctors
dentists
undertakers
and cemeteries popping up everywhere
URÓLOGO they say in Spanish
ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION
right above the glass plate front door
No peace
My mom says take it easy
Christa tells a story about a gruesome cancer
the friend long dead
Sam says
Some push it forward
some never rest
rest in peace
Can you name all the apostles?
Peter James and John in a satin frock
A hanger-on
A groupie
Magdalene
hair greasy with organic olive oil and tears
dust of the road
probably flecks of uncooked chicken
made the whole town afraid
they might stay.
John
another John
said
All of them are dead now
my friends who drank like you
You can stop
He said
You can stop
He said
turning to Mistress A
But YOU
he said
YOU can’t stop
you going to be dead before fifty.
Piles of bottles in the yard
stashed in the flusher tank of the house
so you couldn’t even walk
or flush without thinking
No one mentions her.
God Himself said
Take and drink.
Going down the row the priest says
Take and drink.
Again the priest says
Take and drink
Again he says
Take it and drink of it
but we guzzle.
Going down the row
Pornomagnetic tongues out
This is my
My oh my
such a literal mind is mine.
Colin Gee is the founder and editor of The Gorko Gazette. Check out his books: The Penult with LEFTOVER Books, Left in the Lurch with Dumbo, Lips with Anxiety Press, All you want (a series of lies), chapbook and work of love from Stone Corpse Press.
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