Stripped of his protective husk
of agreeable friends and doting acquaintances
a man must maintain composure
poise and decorum to the bitter end
as a rule of thumb, society demands it of him
even the ill-equipped and socially inept
know this.
Anyway, since you ask—
she dropped him off in the middle of nowhere
throwing him from the car bonnet
roadkill, carrion for the crows
She tore off down the highway
picking up hitchers and was long gone
he didn’t remain there for long either
some amateur taxidermist got to him
and stuffed and mounted him
in an unnatural clumsy pose
with a permanently startled
open-mouthed expression
a plastic cockeyed gaze.
He was propping up the bar in my local
staring both into and away from
the immeasurable distance of his hand
to a glass of beer
-that’s where I found him.
