The Bitter End, poem by Mike Lafontaine

Your teeth are crooked
she said – they shoot out
at awk­ward angles – just like you
she fig­ured me out fast

I have lots of ner­vous energy
I can be intense

that’s okay she said I like that
in time she did not
I lost my mind for this girl
for the first time ever

I was a ter­ri­ble cry­ing drunk
for many months
my friends did not want to
hang out with me

I was a bummer

rebound girls of all shapes
and sizes did not help
it took me two years
to get through it

I bumped into her
and her daugh­ter the oth­er day
at fuck­ing Target
of all places

my heart broke again –
that kid could have been mine
if I was normal

she smiled and said
I looked well
I told her motherhood
agreed with her

I said hel­lo to her daughter
she cow­ered into her mother’s skirt

we smiled some more

she said she had to go
I said sure it was great
see­ing you again
she said it was
great to see you too

she then grabbed my arm
looked me in the eye
and said – take care of yourself
and walked off

I exit­ed the store
crossed the road
and entered the bar

Mike Lafontaine has lived in the Unit­ed King­dom, Cana­da and the Unit­ed States. He has had a lot of crap­py jobs and some good ones; he seems to attract women with men­tal prob­lems. He earned a (BA) Bach­e­lor of Arts in Dra­ma, Writ­ing and Per­for­mance and then a (MA) Mas­ters Degree in Cre­ative Writ­ing from Mac­quar­ie Uni­ver­si­ty. He cur­rent­ly lives in Syd­ney, Aus­tralia with his girl­friend and their dog Lloyd. His work has been fea­tured or upcom­ing in Word Riot, Fried Chick­en and Cof­fee & The Camel Saloon.