Dirtbag Daydreams

I should never have read any Bukowski

Once I saw you could be a shlubby drunk

and a literary icon

at the same time

it got really hard to give a shit about being

"clean-cut" or "upstanding."

At this point I'll settle for standing up.

I should never have listened to Kurt Cobain

All those visceral, junked-out songs and

(defined liberally)

all that success...

Sure, the guy was severely depressed

but that's just more common ground.

Just gotta make sure I don't marry Courtney-

Would love to live past twenty-seven...

I should never have got into Lenny Bruce

That anthropomorphic middle finger of comedy

really resonated.

Loose, improvisational- jazz-jokes

I'm constantly riffing and making poor decisions,

Lenny did it first

and he redefined a fucking art form through it-

not in spite of,

but through the insanity

Hard to motivate yourself when you know it can be done;

deadbeats and degenerates

can still surpass all your dirtbag daydreams.