Book Hangover:

When all my paperbacks quit smelling of vanilla,
schedule an Alzheimer’s test before I’m forced
to relapse into the daytime sitcom my mind will play on repeat.
It’s strange, delighting in the unbrushed-morning breath of good and loyal friends—
like attending my own birthday party, where guests were served after dinner Lebanese cookies and Italian liqueurs, but good friends allow one to indulge his vices by proxy until one by one their dust jackets are peeled off the coat post and, making their Irish goodbyes, leave me lazy-boy’d in front of the tv—my dark victory, faced without fuss, for I’ve long breathed the smell of decay.

MICHAEL KFOURY

A public servant, Michael Kfoury has written poems that have recently appeared in Wax Paper and Steam Ticket Review. This old soul and New Deal nerd loves classic rock, literature, and films. His attention is often divided between the night’s Humphrey Bogart screening, revising his writing, and studying the socio-economic reforms of 1930s America. He can be followed on Instagram @MJK001221.