I understand
the concept of synchronicity – I mean my favourite movies are always brought up
in my favourite TV shows. That means I’m doing something right, right?
Today I ate more pasta than
any human has
ever eaten.
2 sittings of
cheesy goodness
and now I’m
‘fit to burst’, as they say.
I watch the
girl across from me nibble on salad
and sip a
thin soup.
Lightweight.
Last night as I lay awake in bed, eyes open –
my body
tired,
my mind
racing –
I thought up
an entire stand-up comedy routine.
It totalled
about 5 minutes
and it killed
them,
the whole
room, blackened
except for
small red table lights and the
single spot,
roared.
For a moment or two I considered jumping out of bed
and writing
it all down.
Unreal as
these jokes were that I had just happened upon,
they would work in real life,
I knew that
without any doubt.
But, laziness plus tiredness,
plus warmth
divided by stupidity, stayed my legs
and instead,
I closed my eyes and concentrated
on the safer
– imagined success of that fragile moment.
You can’t lose if you don’t try, I thought
as I curled
up to her warm back and ass.
And burying
my face in her neck of long brown hair
I felt a
little like a failure –
But I was at
least a warm, comfortable
failure.
* Dan Bowan lives in South East London and mainly write
prose/poetry, as well as short stories/flash fiction – some of which
have been published in Creative Week newspaper. He adds “I
have been writing for 13-14 years and work a day job to pay the rent.
I've also performed at The Poetry Society in Betterton Street and a
couple other places.”