{"id":1517,"date":"2008-12-16T07:54:44","date_gmt":"2008-12-16T07:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1517"},"modified":"2008-12-16T07:54:44","modified_gmt":"2008-12-16T07:54:44","slug":"john-grochalski-knows-hes-not-perfect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/john-grochalski-knows-hes-not-perfect\/","title":{"rendered":"John Grochalski knows he's not perfect"},"content":{"rendered":"

world's perfect asshole<\/span>
 <\/span>

you come in from<\/span>
running errands<\/span>
you said that dale called<\/span>
you on the cell phone<\/span>
he's wandering manhattan<\/span>
he's upset and feeling overwhelmed<\/span>
so you invited him over<\/span>
to watch movies on our last day off.<\/span>
 <\/span>
you come in from<\/span>
running errands<\/span>
and i am in my shorts<\/span>
with weak knees and a week-old beard<\/span>
sweat-soaked in forty-eight degrees<\/span>
all the windows open<\/span>
and the place a mess<\/span>
with cds and dirt all over the floor.<\/span>
 <\/span>
you come in from<\/span>
running errands<\/span>
and i tell you like hell<\/span>
i'm entertaining anyone today<\/span>
i tell you like hell<\/span>
and i'm half-drunk on wine<\/span>
and my soul is a mess and everyone<\/span>
out there just looks ugly to me.<\/span>
 <\/span>
you come<\/span>
and tell me that this is your place too<\/span>
and you can socialize with whomever you want<\/span>
like i'm some kind of barbaric keeper<\/span>
i tell you that while this is true<\/span>
the place is mine as well<\/span>
and we bicker like a couple of roommates<\/span>
over the last slice of bread.<\/span>
 <\/span>
you come in from<\/span>
running errands<\/span>
you come at me and i come at you<\/span>
the two of us like freight trains<\/span>
on the same track, it's so damned scary<\/span>
that i wait for the impact<\/span>
you come at me and apologize<\/span>
i come at you, and throw you out.<\/span>
 <\/span>
you come in from dale and the bar<\/span>
you come to me on the couch<\/span>
where i have been drinking wine<\/span>
for three hours alone<\/span>
and watching television<\/span>
you come to me, i'm the world's perfect asshole<\/span>
and we just know enough at this point<\/span>
to let it all pass until i'm myself again.<\/span>


* John Grochalski is an American writer whose poetry has appeared in a wide range of magazines. His short fiction has appeared in the <\/span>Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/span> and the forthcoming anthology <\/span>Living Room Handjob<\/span>.  My His collection of poetry <\/span>The Noose Doesn't Get Any Looser After You Punch Out<\/span> is published by Six Gallery Press.<\/span>
 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

world's perfect asshole you come in fromrunning errandsyou said that dale calledyou on the cell phonehe's wandering manhattanhe's upset and feeling overwhelmedso you invited him overto watch movies on our last day off. you come in fromrunning errandsand i am in my shortswith weak knees and a week-old beardsweat-soaked in forty-eight degreesall the windows openand the place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}