R.J. ZEMAN - POEMS

R.J. Zeman is a poet from Dunedin, Florida. He is a 2007 graduate of the Creative Writing program at F.S.U. More of his work can be found at www.robertzeman.blogspot.com.

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​The Back

​People
roam around
shopping centers
and stadiums
and gas stations.
Beautiful young girls
do homework
in fancy
coffee shops
on pricey
Mac Books.
Clothing stores,
libraries,
college campuses.
Tennis courts,
24-hour
gyms,
and sandy beaches.
People spend all day
walking
malls
and book stores
and
electronics super centers.
McDonald’s,
Taco Bell,
used car lots.
All these places,
and the only place
I ever fit in
was the back
of a
seedy bar
at midnight.
 
 
 

​The Fellowship

​I go on
dating sites
late at night.
I talk to
stressed out
single mothers
with
drinking problems
and
bored,
lonely girls
in small towns
in the middle
of nowhere.
They are all
disenchanted
with life;
they all have
terrible
ex-boyfriends
that they
bitch about
constantly.
We talk
until
four in the morning,
then they
go to bed
to get ready
for jobs
they hate.
There are
so many
lonely, angry
dissatisfied
people
in the world.
Just look
at us:
we are
legion.
 

​Art

​ 
I met her
at a bar
near the campus
of F.S.U.
She was blonde,
voluptuous,
with big green eyes.
She had
a fake tan
and wore
a Seminoles t-shirt.
I told jokes,
tried to
impress her.
I kept checking
my hair
in the mirror
behind the bar.
We ordered
a series
of beers
and shots.
Eventually,
we made it back
to my place.
I pulled out
a bottle of vodka
and we drank
on my
dirty futon.
We got drunk
until
four in the morning.
Finally,
we made it
into my bedroom.
We made love
until the sun
came up.
When I went back
into the
living room,
the bottle
was still there.
I took a swig of it.
Someday,
we will both be dead
and nobody
will care
that we were alive,
or that I fucked her,
or that I wrote
this poem
about it.