Greg Santos

{Portrait Study #2}

We Laughed Like Drains

We puffed up
our chests and strutted.

We talked
about our hazy
futures and mottled pasts.

We read between
the lines and giggled
like schoolgirls.

Our sides were aching
so much tears
cursed our faces.

We kept laughing
even when it stopped
being funny.

We couldn’t shake
off the eternal fatigue
in our bones.

Can’t we stay
like this forever?

 

Bio: Greg Santos is the author of The Emperor’s Sofa (DC Books, 2010). He is the poetry editor of pax americana and is on the editorial board of the Paris-based journal, Upstairs at Duroc.