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"irreconcilable breakdown", "the falling out between Kaye Swiss, Esq."...by Adam Johnson

irreconcilable breakdown


my wife told me to take a bath

then she handed me a folding knife

and told me to do it right this time


you see two years ago i tried

to hang myself in the garage


but my belt from Marshall's broke

and she had to take me to the ER

i fractured my C-2 when i fell from the beam


since then she has openly cuckolded me


our youngest just went off to college


my wife is living with her boyfriend


she's just here to grab some things

and run a bath for me


she said she needs her passport

and my mastercard

she and what's his name are

going to turks and caicos



the falling out between Kaye Swiss, Esq.

and the Knights of Columbus


Kaye Swiss stopped off at the outback

steakhouse

across the street from the mall of america

and perked up his ears

as per his wont

he was thinking of a little rum drink

and the prospect of his giza dream

sheets from my pillow

well he decided to stay for a sixth

rum and coke

and he picked up on a conversation

across the bar most discrete and the like

there was a group from the Knights of Columbus

they were in a conversation most confidential

so Kaye was naturally inclined to listen in

about a possible retainer, &c.

to do so he thought it most apropos to

order himself a little white russian nightcap, &c.


well one of the knights had a gimlet eye

and picked up on Kaye, see

he could spot an ambulance chaser from

10 miles off

so he told his crew to go all sotto voce and

the fucking like lest

Kaye gets wind of their business, &c.


well you should know

if you don't already

that Kaye was born with a most apropos

gimlet eye himself

and his eye didn't just twitch

it twerked all beside itself

Kaye drew up near the group of knights

where he naturally asked pardon

or asked that he be given leave

something technical with

a touch of ipse dixit and a dash

of the retort courteous, see


Kaye naturally said he knew a good

lawyer in town, the one who offices

next to The Buckle and enjoys

his orange julius and brandy, &c.

well so Kaye pulled out his

business cards and his

pocket edition of poor richard's almanac

and went to town on the knights

by reading them a little passage


he went on for about a half hour

and the knights were all polite

on account of a good breeding and

manners attendant upon their rank and file

but at the end of Kaye's little soapy-eyed speech

and his quotations from the Constitution as he sees it

and some other ramblings that revealed

not a smidge but a smudge of dutch courage and such

it was then &c. that Kaye dropped the bill

for his services, not a paid invoice

but from his lips

$175 for the half hour of blarney, dig


well, that didn't sit well with the knights

not as they saw it and such and

who boycotted the payment &c. while ordering wings &c.

they folded their arms in true style

and told Kaye he wouldn't get so much as a wagon wheel

(which Kaye took as a silver dollar insult)

they stood on ceremony to the point

where Kaye exploded on them,

called them all father fuckers from squaresville

and set off three smoke bombs all tri-colored

right there in the outback steakhouse

in order to make his usual exit and the like


the bartender asked after the knights

to try and square the beef

but all they knew was that some most

psychopathic counselor-at-law, esq. and the like

made yackety-yack and beat it

a faint pleading legal beagle,

his crumpled suit reeking of an otto of brandy and julius

collar stays in the shapes of stalagmites and

cuff links by K Swiss

jaundiced eyeballs aching in yellow shades

veiny, trembling hands, bloodshot crosses

a scar from here to there, he was

the lawyer with the teardrop tattoo



magic dancing


john had kids, 4, 6, and 7

he was redoing the main bath himself

he was changing out the light switches

he forgot to turn the breakers off

john got a good zap that sent him spinning

and swearing

his heart felt like it was going to explode

his whole body was trembling

he got pissed and ran to the fridge

for drinks

he got there, and started chugging beers

he polished off eight beers in a row

it was the time dad got electrocuted

and drank his ass off

but the kids only knew it as "the

time dad got struck by magic

and danced to tell the refrigerator."



friday morning, march


blaring "day O" by harry belafonte to

try and smoke my wife

out from under the covers

i have the speakers set up

at the bottom of the stairs

and aimed up at the bedroom

it's my opening shot

in the dog days of our private war

christ, what battles will there be today?

what hills will i die on?

maybe today she'll get a lawyer

while i'm at work

things have gone down hill

thanks god we don't have kids

i'm ready to move on

i think

i'll go back to my stag days

where all of my friends were

women who were older

and fatter

and drunker than me




Adam Johnson lives in Minnesota. His forthcoming poetry collection, What Are You Doing Out Here Alone, Away From Everyone? will be released through HASH Press in December, 2021.

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