For Some Reason by Dave O'Leary

The Kimchi House

over on 24th Avenue NW

is closed

on Mondays just like

I’d like to be

while I nurse

my residual hangovers

from weekend sports

and I envy those

who make my Tuesday

kimchi jjigae

staying on Mondays

in their homes or running

errands or perhaps drinking

soju throughout

the day and not thinking

about me at all

until I show up on Tuesday

begging of their time

and their ingredients

that I might be nourished

and cured,

at least,

that is,

until next Monday

when they are closed

once more

and I must

question everything

about my life

for twenty-four hours.

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Dave O'Leary is a writer and musician in Seattle. His most recent collection of poetry and short prose, I Hear Your Music Playing Night and Day, was published in May 2021 by Cajun Mutt Press, and he misses the cats immortalized therein.