“The Two Things That Ruin Everything I Love” by Adam Gianforcaro

I.  TV

Television takes hold of my family

like these frantic rednecks abducted by aliens

with their cattle wondering who’s really in charge.

Brain cells wither with winter-bound mums

in the face of reality shows and made-for-TV movies.

Their teeth glisten against the plasma screen, laughing.

II.  Bar

Friends gather in claustrophobic rooms to drink piss

from chilled glasses. Hazy eyes and muddy lungs, fish dead

in livers. They yell and laugh and fuck.

Driving home, wheels dancing on the road, quick step

back between the lines. Arriving home, happily alive,

they flop on the couch, smiling against the plasma TV, laughing.

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Adam Gianforcaro is a freelance writer and poet. He is the Membership Coordinator for Midwest Nursing Research Society. His most recent poems and prose can be found in Battered Suitcase, Defenestration and Short, Fast, and Deadly.