SoMa Literary Review - San Jose, Just Like Home

San Jose, Just Like Home

By Michael Haeflinger

under the shadow

of the convention center

four teenagers, one girl

who looked like

dream girl for all the

artsy boys

I grew up becoming

threatened to beat me up

for cigarettes

if I slept in her park

on the sidewalk they divvied

small bottles of colored liquor

fingering it like

squirrels

passing it around

waiting for me to leave

good thing I had some

money

bought a bottle

despite the hotel’s

no drinking sign

yellowing in concert

with the receptionist's

teeth

my life reduced to

the lowest common

truth:

tv and a bed

bottle and a check out

admit defeat

in this great

American

adventure

I fought

everyone

back home

to have

and the best

thing that

can be said

about it

is that it’s

not warm yet

when it is

it no longer matters

and they will find it here

tomorrow

half empty

in the can

long after

the chance

to remind me

of the rules

has passed

Michael Haeflinger is a poet, educator, organizer, and musician from the American Midwest currently living in Berlin, Germany. His work has appeared in Nexus, Milk, Make, UR Chicago, and Chicago 6 Corners where he is the poetry editor.