Whatever you do

Whatever you do

Never get that idea into your head,

You know the one

That some guy, whatever he looks like

Maybe one of those skinny dudes

With the grey streaks in his hair

And a patrician nose,

He might even wear Pinz Nez

Or have a jumper, maybe a scarf,

Wrapped around his shoulders

Be barefoot

Almost certainly sockless,

Back in the day he would have smoked Gauloise

Sipped Pastis

In a Soho dive bar

Whilst a jazz trio tormented

The hell out of a love supreme,

He often hangs out in a coffee shop

But only an independent

Never one of the chains

He might carry a leather satchel

Do poetry readings

Still use a pen, write in a leather-bound journal

His legs crossed, with one foot tucked underneath

The other

Gazing out into the middle distance

With a kind of half-smile

Keeping the joke to himself

Never shy to step up to the mike

Even when he hasn’t been asked

Reading from the heart

As if he doesn’t care who listens

When he does

You can tell if you look closely

His mouth is turned down ever so slightly

At the corners,

A grimace away from a smirk

His eyes roaming from one face to the other

Only pausing on the lonely ones

Long enough to make them smile

He always says he is riffing

When the truth is he wrote it last year

For pity’s sake

He has performed it a dozen times

With never a change,

Although he might linger, longer

Over a different word

Depending on the vibe

Him, yes him

You know, that guy

Whatever you do, never believe it

When he says he is a sensitive soul

Feels the pain of the world

Deep in his heart,

Because he is a poet

The cuts go deeper

His words bleed onto the page

In a torment of rage

At injustice

The devil’s curse

The bitterness of loss

He wants you to think he is empathetic

When in truth, he is a narcissist

And is only in love with himself,

Believes he is the only feeling one,

So whatever you do

Whatever you do,

Don’t believe it when he says

You have stolen his heart.

He will break yours.