WANDERING BOSTON

Bates Hall at the Boston Public Library.

WANDERING BOSTON

by matt burns

I walk the streets

I take the subway

I go to the public library

I roam Boylston

Newbury Street

Searching for that great poem to manifest itself

On the Green Line

I notice everybody’s buried into their smartphones

There’s got to be a poem there

But I got nothing new that hasn’t been said before

In the library

The bathroom is straight out of a horror movie

Shit, piss, blood, all over the urinals

There must be a poem there

But I don’t have anything except what I just said

I sit in the middle of Bates Hall

There are long

Wooden

Rectangular

Tables

With muted green lamps

Bookshelves line the walls

Domed ceilings

Murals

Beautiful architecture from many years ago

I thought this room would give birth to inspiration

It’s got that look to it

Like an early twentieth century writer wrote a novel in here

But all it’s given me is an erection

Because there are tons of beautiful girls in this room

I can’t even concentrate on poetry in here

I guess this is a poem

About a desperate search for a new poem

I thought with all the stuff going on in the city

I’d come up with multiple poems

But no dice

Maybe I should have just stayed at home

Because now I have to pee

And the closest bathroom is the horror show down the stairs

Also, I think my car’s getting ticketed as I speak

Staying at home

And writing about staring at my bedroom wall

Analyzing the squashed mosquito and its guts

Probably would have yielded a better poem

Than what I’m coming up with right now

Traveling

Urban activity

Tons of different people

Diversity

Culture

It doesn’t necessarily give birth

To much inspiration

The traveling poet roaming around an exciting place

It’s a Romantic concept

But the reality is that

It gives birth to bullshit

Stay at home

Stare at the wall

Analyze the bug juice

You don’t have to be worldly

To come up with good poems

Come to think of it

I think I’ve already written a poem

With this exact theme

Thus nothing new has even been written

Case in point

I should have stayed at home

HEY BIG GUY!

HEY BIG GUY!

by matt burns

I’m at the Subway sandwich shop

And there’s a guy in front of me in line

He’s very tan, probably Italian

And he wears a Backpack

He’s maybe in his 50s 

He seems a little sweaty, like he’s been walking a while

Or I think he may have just gotten off the city bus

And he says to the guy making his sandwich

“HEY BIG GUY!”

And then he says he wants a lotta extra mayo or something like that

The Subway employee making the sandwich

Is an East Indian man

A little short

And shy

And does not speak very good English

The Italian man ordering the sandwich looks damaged

From maybe a lifetime of putdowns

Maybe his father treated him like crap

And his mother thought he was never good enough

Maybe the kids at school gave him a hard time

The teachers, too

And coaches, gym teachers…

After a lifetime of putdowns

He seems happy to have found somebody he feels taller than

Both physically

And in terms of confidence

The man making his sandwich is his servant

For at least the next minute or two

And the Italian likes this

“HEY BIG GUY!”

Is his attempt to sound cool

And to make himself feel all the more superior

And to trick himself into thinking he’s always been this kind of person

Mr. Confidence

He relishes this opportunity to feel above somebody else

But he’s not really a dickhead about it

He’s just happy to be superior

Everybody is happy to be superior once in a while

Especially those of us who are insecure

And most of us are

No, I don’t think this guy’s a condescending dick

I understand where he’s coming from

I like to feel superior, too

Though I’m not so obvious about it

Just because I hide my power-trips

Doesn’t mean I don’t still have them