Joey Cloudy online

A Flock of Bums

I have been tossing 

half-smoked cigarettes

into the parking lot at work.

Hoping to attract all of the neighborhood

drunks, bums and crack whores.

Like pigeons on scattered breadcrumbs.

 The boss hates it when they hang out in front

of the store, begging for change

that never materializes. 

 When they are standing

in front of my register two bits short

on a pack of generic squares. I reach into

my shallow pockets.

 I don’t care what drugs they are on, who they fought

in the last war or whose dick they just sucked

for a lousy buck twenty five.

 Here’s a quarter.

Yeah, my job sucks. But,

your life is swallowing the load.