Asshole                                                                        Nancy Krygowski 

 

 

Something about how easy

it is to hate all drivers

and on bad days hate

all passengers

above the age of four. 

Something about

how that hole

holds all our self

hate.  How that feels

good. Something about

the crying man who crawled

onto a mattress on the floor,

pressed slowly

into his ex-girlfriend

for the first time. Still crying.

Something about how

we push out that word,

venom and antidote.

Something about how

hard we push.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Motherfucker

 

 

The motherfucker

was a man

who was my father. 

I know he fucked

my mother—

I have one sister, four brothers.

I don’t know

what they called it,

or if he fucked anyone else.

His name

was Casimir,

which he hated.

Besides for saying

the occasional bad word—

shit, damn, hell—

he was a pretty good man.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stupid Bitch

 

 

Stupid bitch doesn’t do the things she’s supposed to do—

Wake him up at 11, iron creases in his jeans

Stupid bitch, fucking stupid bitch

 

Stupid bitch does things she shouldn’t—

buys smooth peanut butter, spends money on kids’ tennis shoes

Stupid bitch, stupid ass bitch

 

Stupid bitch doesn’t listen—

Don't bother me when I'm on the phone

Stupid bitch, stupid fucking bitch

 

Stupid bitch won’t ever learn.

Stupid, stupid bitch.  Stupid

fucking ass bitch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy Krygowski is the author of Velocity, winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007).  She is an adult literacy instructor at Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council and a poetry instructor in Carlow’s Madwomen in the Attic writing program.