Emotional in Houston

a poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Poker I played with a lizard
and a giggling salamander.
Cruelly they laughed when I lost,
even denied me a last cigarette.
At the end of a dark hall
I found the exit,
it was guarded by a crocodile
which snapped at me heels
when opened the door.
The night was raw
almost like a sauna gone cold
and I was miserable alone
till I stumbled over a six pack of Lone Star.
Jubilant, I sang to the moon
till someone shouted:
‘It’s not the moon you bloody fool
but a street lamp you’re singing to’
‘So what!
I’m happy
so I sing to anything I like,
you middle class twat.
Through the night
blue lights flashed
and sirens drowned my serenade to life.