the library at Alexandria is burning

Shit,
I said out loud
& then I wondered
again
just what it was I was doing
leaning on a "Village Voice" box,
the omen-like hour of midnight,
the weather jaded & slightly bored,
me dressed in my most faded jeans
& a new-grown goatee,
waiting for some college boy
who looked like a winner
seven beers ago
to hurry up and
finish already.

Well.
At least this earthy work
serves as a distraction
from the idea that
there is only so much
drinking, smoking,
& fucking around
a man can do.
That at some point
he has to realize
his potential & do something
or be something
or he has to accept the fact
that he's gone as far as
he can.
There is that.

I suppose.