A History of Cool

I was cherry tobacco in a pipe cool

Puffing on the coal with my girlfriend

in Crown Pub cool

I was memorized Tom Waits growl cool

I was four-inch sole black Sketcher boots cool

Thrifted 70s suede leather long coat

strapped with a waist belt cool

Lingerie camisole as a summer tank cool

I was clove cigarette then menthol cool

Half a packa Camels a week

on the steps of grad school cool

I was drop off my toddler at her dad’s

go to the literature department party cool

I was toke, sip PBR, smoke

and spin in my head on my bed till I puke cool

I was sleep with eyes open

with a street man cool

I was drum on the plaza with my posse cool

Smoke a cig with my espresso

at Paris on the Poudre

with my daughter in Guatemalan prints

on my hip cool

I was run to the window

where a longhaired musician

was knocking

to whisper you can’t stay here tonight

I’m sorry, cool

then run back to the poet in my bed cool

I was exhausted by cool

I was build a cabin in the woods cool

Fend off advances of the neighbor boogeyman cool

Buy a .38 special for protection cool

Fall in love with a poet musician

12 years my senior cool

I was toke before sex cool

I was bear two sons rarely high cool

I was stay at home mom

and pretend I’m a goddess or buddha

when sober for sex cool

I was stay with a good man for the kids cool

I was wilting inside cool

Experimentally poly cool, unfaithful cool

Divorce cool, drive the kids to and from

Two dads cool

I was Hungarian Buddhist manboy lover cool

Sleep on his friend’s floor mattress cool

I was why did I blow up my family for this cool

I was I’m my own man now cool

Power-snake roots from my own septic line cool

Pursue and screw a married poet cool

and fuck his narcissistic shit cool

I was got to get out of this redneck town cool

Fall in love with a Black man I met online cool

I was choose to love no matter what this time cool

Live on a small farm, raise pigs and chickens cool

I was let’s escape barn-sized Trump signs cool

I was let’s leap into remote mountains cool

Teach art, college English and greenhouse cool

Walk to work through the greenbelt cool

Ski with old hips and knees as long as I can cool

Now I’m five years till retirement cool

Obscene SUV payment to drive hybrid

through my golden years cool

Finally marry him by a mountain creek pool

when our ages total 108 cool

Achey hand learning the ukulele cool

Mark time by visits with grown kids

and kiss kiss kiss my grandson cool