Carrying your Oscar Wilde smile,

at first you seem distant from the merchandise

 

but really

the talk is cheap, bloated up with artistic soliloquies,

rendering itself archaic and, hmm, can I take another cigarette?

kind of dull.

 

I tried to write down the quote that you just said on my napkin,

so I could read it without your affections,

and it seems a little out of context, a little spurious,

a little like a status update.

 

Do you fancy another drink? Yeah we can talk about Dante then,

and how you’d love to travel,  you can show me a picture of when your hair was pink,

and then tell me about the book you are gonna write someday, that play, that children’s collection,

that poem, that band you are gonna join,  that....

 

Yeah your clothes are nice, you made them yourself?

Kind of. No.

Yeah, I liked the music from Vietnam.

 

Just gonna get another bottle...

 

What? Erm, they sound existential? When are they playing?

 

Think I might be busy.