Read Poem: BEAUTIFUL LOSER, by Mark Laurent

You’re a beautiful loser
in that red surfer tee-shirt
and blue panel van
even the paint smears on your labourer forearms
and your possum-in-the-headlights stare
add wairua to your duckling grace

You cut off those dreadlocks
which you’d cultivated for years
and the other night you told me
as we stood in the club bar melee
maybe you’d been too hasty
I liked the image they gave you
kind of piratical, wild-man, free-man
but you’re still a beautiful loser
though now you’ll need to wear a hat
when the ozone hole stretches

Like the hole in your pocket
the cell phone bill makes
when your wife phones too often
just to talk about nothing
or, “What’ll we have for dinner?”
because she gets a bit lonely
only talking to your babies
and she’s really in love
with her beautiful loser

So you’re a small-town production
short hair, short expectations, short…