Happy New Year to everybody. May 2023 be the year the world gets to see your brilliance.

MC

I'm the guy eavesdropping on others' stories
hoping they're worse than mine.

I'm their gothic novels -
spines broken,
cast into ten for a dollar
thrift store baskets
hoping new owners.

I've been drinking so long,
watered-down beer
loses succour fast.

This is not the terminus I dreamed of.

I need to buy a one-way Greyhound ticket to New Mexico,
find a fine woman who will hold me,
tell me I'm the guy
she's waited her whole life for.

I rattle my last few cents on the counter.

Nobody knows how tired I am.

Hi. MC reporting for duty.  8)