Bedside
by Michael Buckius
Bedside, I bring you chicken nuggets
The unemployment rate has fallen again
and it’s starting to make us look bad
We sigh, the dream is over
You light a cigarette
and pass me the pack
Tomorrow we will initiate
divorce proceedings
We will divide the Venetian blinds
vertically
find smaller windows
and become nostalgic
about horizontal patterns
of light through the smoke
the grease on our fingertips
the crumbs on an empty plate
beside the bed
Michael Buckius is a writer and filmmaker from Lancaster, PA. He earned his undergraduate degree in Film and Media Arts from Temple University, and his MFA in Creative Writing from Northern Arizona University. His work has appeared in Ghost City Review, Masque and Spectacle, Shrew, Write On, Downtown, and elsewhere. His first chapbook, Future Sarcasm, is available now from Tolsun Books.
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What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “Bedside”? The poem is about an opiate-addicted couple. The main person in the poem realizes that they can’t live like this forever, and the only way to move forward is to break up. The bringing of the chicken nuggets amounts to one last grand romantic gesture before they move on with their lives.
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