In Case of Emergency by Wayne F. Burke

I spent days in the streets of the
city and
nights sleeping on a bench in
Longfellow Park
(some fucking poet he must have been)
and woke with the back of my head
flat as the bench.

I drank whiskey to help me,
to sleep and
for other reasons;
tried to keep an eye open
as I slept;
had a job
but
like Jesus,
nowhere to lay my head,
except the bench,
because
no rooms in the city
to rent until
one night
a room opened up at the Y
and I filled the preregistration form
but
after told by the clerk
to fill in the space
“in case of emergency notify”
I crumpled it up and
threw it at him across
the desk
because
who in the hell was he
tell me what to do?

Later,
back on my bench,
I told myself:
I must be nuts.

Wayne F. Burke has published six full-length collections of poetry, most recently DIFLUCAN (2019, BareBack Press). He lives in Vermont.