Found Business Card #1

Les Lasater hates his job

and wants someone to know,

someone who reads the same books,

lives (or used to) in the same town,

visits the local library,

and suffers the same muted ululation

we all choke

in the presence of strangers,

lovers.

I know this because his business card,

tucked into a Bukowski volume,

turned up in my hands one desperate afternoon

in a coffee house

in which no patron spared me

the courtesy

of a second (or first) glance.

Les is (was?) part of the Adams Family

Entertainment business.

If there’s a joke in that,

I want him to hear

this conceited laughter

of recognition:

someone, somewhere –

me, here –

found solace in that same suffering

we all turn to;

genius fans the flames,

fills the balloon

for one more trip

through the stratosphere

at the unforgiving mercy

of mad winds,

miserable with fire.