your last name will always be older than your first

i_could_kneel — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

the tendency to go the same roads home.
to slip into the same booth
the waitress, cashier, bank teller
feels good, smart even, remembering
your order. already grilling, pouring
before the vinyl has warmed its hands on your neck.
smoke clouding the kitchen sky like birds in autumn
and ash falling purer than loam.
are these habits better
or worse than the knee ticks
that get the best of you
in church?

we are all thousands of dollars
in debt to tradition
to our big brother and our last names.
we realize it when we're young
when sandwiches taste wrong at different lunch tables
when trees are cut down our hands clench
and we grow in protest.

salisbury - i_could_kneel

your last name will always be older than your first