5 dollar bill
If it can make you stronger
it can kill you
personally, I like
the sentiment
but respectfully disagree
Sunday in the diner
walking in, a homeless guy
hits me and my buddy
up for
one dollar
to get a dollar burger
my buddy waits by the door
and I think about it
the homeless guy mentions
something about showing me
some kind of homeless card
or crazy card he has
and I pull a five-spot from
my wallet
he snatches it:
"Thanks, man. You're badass."
He walks off and I follow
my buddy inside and he looks at
me and smiles
I scratch my protruding gut:
"Tell me something I don't know, motherfucker."
We laugh and get our booth
order and eat while I watch
more homeless out
the window
peppering the outside
full with the scrubbed-clean
after-worship crowd
as they begin to pile in
for breakfast
I think about them
clean like soap
every Sunday
the industry of Christ
if we want to truly
help the homeless
and kill the national
deficit, provide true
and humanely
accessible health care,
and all the etceteras
that follow these,
tax the churches
but I take my thoughts
of these dead horse thoughts
of all this
and watch the sunlight
battle through
a bright grey sky
and the coffee
begins its coursing
while I remember all
the love and hate
and platitudes and
erase them from my
mind at once
and realize that because or
in spite of
everything around me
I am happy
and think back to my favorite
Nietzsche quote:
The Trouble With Happiness
"Now everything I touch turns out to be wonderful. Now I love any fate which comes my way. Who feels like being my fate?"