You sit on the couch
with a urine-stained
tank top,
mocha boxer briefs
And a paperback blunt
in one claw,
with a bourbon whiskey on rye
in the other,
with me,
tonight by the fireplace,
full moon, two shits.
“Why don’t you ever
call me?” the Old Geezer slurred,
taking a few puffy whiffs.
“What’s there to talk about,”
I said. “I sexually identify as
A microwave dinner because
I’m ready in 5-minutes, look
nothing like my photos,
And I’m just satisfying enough
for you to want me again
when you’re desperate.”
And now, the Old Geezer
wanders, wonders,
lets those words
slow-roast,
marinate in that polluted
waste bucket of a cranium,
thinking what kind of
behemoth would
spit those words.
“Life is measured by the
number of breaths
you take,” the Old Geezer mumbled,
sipping that bourbon whiskey on rye.
I burped.
“Maybe it’s measured more by
the moments that take
our breath away,” I said.
Meanwhile, as our words oxidize,
the Old Geezer hunches over–
lips sipping
And sniffing
Dante’s Inferno
which suffocates
the esophagus,
I’d prefer you
Drink
Smoke
Cough
Blow
yourself into a coma,
where those
paperback blunts
And whiskey bourbons on rye
throttle that crooked cranium
into a house fire
that crumbles beneath
the ashes,
And fades away.
Until then,
let’s inhale the fumes
swallow whiskey neats
thick-N-thin
And
Crack
Snapple
Pop!
ABOUT
Chris Mardiroussian is a lecturer in the Department of English at California State University, Long Beach. His most recent book is a full-length collection of poetry entitled BLUNDER DOWN UNDER, which Chasing Shadows Magazine called, “A stark and raw style of writing that clearly constitutes the life of a typical miscreant.” In 2019, he won First Prize in the Cinema Italian Style Film Festival (sponsored by the prestigious American Cinematheque in Los Angeles) for his short film entitled IL BREAKUP, which he co-wrote and produced. In 2017, he co-wrote a collection of poetry entitled HONESTY. LOVES. CRUELTY. He has also worked on several independent films such as Friends in High Places (2021), nominated for Mexico City’s International Film Festival, The First Color (2020), won the Disability Issues Award, and The Ties that Bind Us (2019), won the Gold Award for Independent Shorts. His work has appeared in Bloom Magazine, BOMBFIRE, Ice Lolly Review, Maythorn Magazine, Perfumed Pages, Pomona Valley Review, Soul Talk Magazine, and elsewhere. He lives in Los Angeles, CA. You can find him on Instagram.
Moonbow Magazine 