UNDERGROUND VOICES MAGAZINE/JAMES BABBS


	UNDERGROUND VOICES: POETRY - 12/2012

JAMES BABBS

At the Bottom of the Bottle

I find another lost dream
and the emptiness like a mirror
the reflection of myself
gazing back at me
the hours I spent
trying to figure out who I was
and I found her one night
waiting there for me
her laughter like the river
when she looked at me
throwing her arms around me
and she kept pulling me down
when I wanted to rise up
she kept dragging me down
and singing me to sleep
and she kept giving me her body
like it was something
she no longer wanted
and the feel of her tongue
every time we kissed
the warmth washing over me
I must have been drowning
while she breathed death
into the darkness of my mouth

I Haven’t Been Drunk for Awhile

I haven’t been drunk for awhile and
I just got the new Leonard Cohen CD
last night from Best Buy
after I upgraded my phone and
my niece asked me
who’s Leonard Cohen and
I told her
he’s a poet from Canada
who also makes music
as if that was all
the explanation
anyone would ever need and
Mr. Cohen I’m sorry
but I don’t remember
how long its been
since the last time
I heard your golden voice and
tonight
I’m safe at home again
listening to the wind blow
raising another bottle to my lips
watching through the window
as the sun slowly goes down

Tonight I’m Down in the Basement

tonight
I’m down in the basement
sitting under the ground
where I can’t hear the wind blowing
I don’t know what it is
but I hate the sound the wind makes
when it pushes against the house
maybe
I’m getting old or something
but I just can’t seem to tolerate
the things I did when I was young
and I’m writing this
in the soft lamp light
listening to the music
coming from the stereo
I still own a lot of records
I never got rid of them
like some people did
when CDs started coming out
I keep my records in bins
I made using plywood
and several two by fours
it allows me to look through them
just like in a record store
the pictures on the covers
I like pulling them out
and holding them in my hands
suddenly
remembering where I was
when I bought a certain record
and those same feelings again
when I start listening to the songs

James Babbs has published hundreds of poems over the last several years in print journals and online. His new full-length collection, Disturbing the Light, is coming soon from Interior Noise Press. Thank you for your time.