Poetry: Selections from John Yamrus

a rock band

 

had asked me 

to be their opening act 

 

for 

a concert 

after the release 

of their latest album. 

 

it was 

a double album 

 

and 

it was good, 

and so were the band. 

 

they’re 

not young anymore, 

 

but neither am i, 

 

so, i said yeah, 

i’d do it, 

 

and it was 

the first time in decades 

that my wife came to a reading of mine, 

 

mostly because 

it technically wasn’t my show, 

 

and 

the place was 

also a restaurant, 

 

so we could eat...

 

and 

anyway, 

she sat there, 

 

in the dark, 

at the back of the room, 

but i could still see her, smiling, 

 

and 

for some reason 

i didn’t get nervous. 

 

the band 

was already up 

and i did 15 or 20 minutes,

 

and i was good, 

 

and 

people laughed 

and smiled and clapped, 

 

and 

for the first 

time in a long time 

 

i left 

a reading 

with a good feeling, 

 

a full stomach 

 

and 

an amazing woman 

who for some unknown reason 

 

still loves only me.

she used to

 

piss him off 

with her habit of saying 

 

supposably

 

and 

for all intensive purposes,

 

but,

in the grand 

scheme of things 

it didn’t really matter, 

 

because 

every now and then 

 

she’d 

stop her talk 

and they could just 

sit there, doing nothing, 

 

while 

the dogs of summer 

barked and the day grew old.

John Yamrus has published 39 books. He has also had more than 3,500 poems published in magazines and anthologies around the world. A number of his books and poems are taught in college and university courses. He is widely considered to be a master of minimalism and the neo-noir in modern poetry.  His two most recent books are the memoir THE STREET and a volume of poetry called PEOPLE (AND OTHER BAD IDEAS). Several of his books have also appeared in translation.