Another one I like...

[twodogs333]

Reasons to Survive November

November like a train wreck--
as if a locomotive made of cold
had hurtled out of Canada
and crashed into a million trees,
flaming hte leaves,setting the woods on fire.

The sky is thick,a cold gauze--
but there's a soup special at the Waffle House downtown,
and the Jack Parsons show is up at the museum
full of luminous red barns.

--Or maybe I'll visit beautiful Donna
the kickboxing queen from Santa Fe,
and roll around in her foldout bed.

I know there are some people out there
who think I am supposed to end up
in a room by myself

with a gun and a bottle of hate,
a locked door and my slack mouth open
like a disconnected phone.

But I hate those people back
from the core of my donkey soul
and the hatred makes me strong
and my survival is their failure,

and my happiness would kill them
so I shove joy like a knife
into my own heart over and over

and I force myself toward pleasure,
and I love this November life
where I run like a train
deeper and deeper
into the land of my enemies.
--Tony Hoagland