From the book, INVISIBLE FOREGROUND
by DAVID BATEMAN


Watching Grown Men Cry

1
over cappuccino with a warm shot of whiskey beside a thin young woman on a barstool in a lounge named "East of Never" under pressure in a late night board meeting when his son will be the eastern star by nine in a first grade play named "Heaven" after stand-up sex with his golfing buddy in a fully equipped RV while the wives are at the spa when the flirtatious lesbian economy of the straight women he works under excludes and excites him before undressing for dinner in full frontal perusal of twenty five years of living he will never get back beside the pane fused light of a sun razed moon on a surreal jigsaw on a commode in his den regardless of pomegranate salad sun dried children sent to camp she asks him to go down on her again with his shallow feet awakening in a sudden stream of light and some fragility in shadows

2
inside a posh new holding pen for new psychiatric patients interrogating $2000 red leather Barcelona knock-offs below a wreath of holiday wealth imagining belief in small paternalistic doses without regard for nothing less than fine wine praise for middle aged women sunglasses and scarves beyond question the faint vivacious tremor of her lower lips inside identity defined by birth certificates driver's licences genital configurations and undotted sin above reproach for moody playoff seasons male menopausal breath beneath cribbage boards plastic pegs hedge clippings and the news of the world unless heaven allows foundational bliss and flood insurance


Invisible Foreground
ISBN: 1-897181-78-7
Price: $15.95
http://frontenachouse.com