Scott Laudati, 9/18/2017

Current Occupation: None
Former Occupation: Bellman/Concierge at NYC boutique hotels
Contact Information: Scott Laudati lives in Harlem with his Iguana, Donna. He is the author of Hawaiian Shirts In The Electric Chair (poems) and Play The Devil (novel), both published by Kuboa Press. Follow him on instagram @scottlaudati

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Leave Me Alone

you’re the new guy 
so you work the graveyard shift.
the boss has finally gone home,
you can smoke a cigarette in peace.
no hiding
no sneaking around the corner.
the garbage trucks clean up the streets.
you watch the last of the drunk girls stumble out, 
some go home alone
some fight with their phone.
the city is finally yours.
just a faraway hum of an ambulance.
no taxi horns.
no one is left to ask anything of you.  
the soft gray clouds reach
over the low tenements 
with winter always right behind them.
and the bums 
sit against the brick walls
like tomorrow is guaranteed.
and they know your face,
they can see what the job has done
so they don’t lift their cups,
just a slow nod or nothing at all.
the same as last night.
and you keep thinking the world
is going to end 
but right now that
doesn’t make you feel so crazy.

alone.
finally.
over rats
and cobblestone.
it’s a world 
that failed a lot 
of people
before you showed up for a paycheck.