Arthur Graham’s Reviews > I Hope It's Not Over, and Good-By.: Selected Poems of Everette Maddox > Status Update

I was a rebel against
the confederacy of the saved; I wanted to be
wearing a monocle and drinking
neon COCKTAILS, leaning on a lamppost
on the broadest boulevard in hell,
or cruising down the river
to heaven between your legs.

The Reason Why

My eyes? You don't have
to tell me. I stay
drunk all the time now.
It's on purpose. I'm
drinking myself to
death. Melodrama!
That's why. Because just
living is a dis-
traction. Getting out
of the car, the bed,
the rain, is next to
impossible. And
being drunk makes it
harder, which makes me
mad, which is how I
like it. Because it
never occurred to
me that the end of
the world would be so
dull.

Hypothetical Self-Epitaph

What if I just caved in,
gave out, pulled over
to the side of
the road of life,
& expired like an old
driver's license?
You might say He didn't
get far in 31 years.
But I'd say That's
all right, it was
the world's longest trip
on an empty tank.

Well, what is all this? you
want to know. Right again. I could
say I don't know myself because the evidence
is not all in, never will be. I could say it's
the unfinished moon poem I've always wanted
to almost write. Well, what is it all about? you
ask. What does it mean? You have me
there. It means, whatever this is between
you and me, I hope it's not over, and good-by.