I think we are gonna be friends

“Two dogs with everything on them but jalapeños” I say,
holding up a V as if the vendor has no idea how many two is.
Another dancing customer announces that it is very cold outside today
and, indeed, it is.
So cold it pierces your bones and sucks all the moisture from your face.
The fingers turn into rubbery stones and the body shakes uncontrollably.

But the weather doesn’t make me cold today.
No, it’s the fact that the one girl I think about is so far away that she can’t be seen.
She’s in another city in the world but in another universe in her heart and mind and soul.
And it’s the fact that my future is currently about as bright as a green penny stamped with the year 1968.

That wasn’t a very good year.
I keep waiting for those bullets but all I get is seven deuce offsuit.
I occasionally get a jack eight, but those are hardly ever very good and they’re hard to play with.
It’s impossible to know what to do with that.

The dancing boy brrrs one last time as he receives his sausage with kraut.
I get two plump dogs wrapped in foil and placed in an old grocery bag.
And I walk away to eat my nitrates alone and cold
while sitting indoors.