I Think I’ve Given Up On Scally Caps For Now
As I sit in the grocery store cafe listening
to Berlioz and glancing up at the ballgame,
I look at the guy across from me and realize
I’m not ready to go gentle into that good cap.
I recently buzzed the sides of my head but
left the top long, trying before the odometer
ticks over to the half-century mark to find
someone a little more interesting to look like.
Now the guy in the scally cap has taken out
a notepad and a pen and he’s writing and
come ON dude I’m trying to differentiate us
and you’re really not helping. Some people.
Anyway I’m a few days away from the end
of van life, although given my general aptitude
for long-term strategy and the fact that
my retirement plan is death, I bet I’ll be back
on the road one of these days, trying again
to outrun the inevitable and probably failing.
For now though I’ve got a one-year lease and
a two-week-old job and at some point I’ll buy
a bed and once I do I’ll finally be a real boy.
Seems like all the guys in this cafe know
one another except me and maybe the scally guy.
They’re eating chips and pizza slices and
drinking diet sodas and talking about their kids
or thumbing through bibles and the ballgame
is tied in the bottom of the seventh
and after this I’ll probably scroll through TikTok
because I’m so. damn. young. y’all.
/ / /
30 March 2023
Charlottesville VA
