The he-man lifting the barbell grunts.
Everybody’s morning is different.

I start mine with a pill, sometimes two,
then smoke the last cigarette in the pack.

And it’s not because I believe
Buddy Holly looked right at me

at the show in Duluth
three days before the plane crash.

A seagull doesn’t know that it’s a seagull,
only we know that

and that its lidless yellow eyes are empty.