R.J. Zeman is a poet from Dunedin, Florida. He is a 2007 graduate of the Creative Writing program at F.S.U.

Date

I stare
at a
birthday card
and smoke
a Pall Mall.
Thirty
nine:
all the
pretty girls
grew up,
got married,
got
divorced.
I see
their pictures
on
Facebook;
smiling
lips,
bags under
green
eyes.
I once
chased them
around
a bar,
drunk,
at
twenty-one.
They looked
like
angels
floating
past the
neon
lights.
But I was
so
wild eyed
and
young.
I’m not
looking
for the
angels
anymore,
I’m looking
for a
solution,
a way
out.
Thirty-nine
years
and still
crazy.
I blow
a ring
of smoke
out into
the air
and take
a long,
deep
breath.