Matty Likes Morphine

The band, not the fruit.
Their lead singer died on stage
in Europe -heart attack-
so the story goes,
on without him, his absence is
this story & I used to stand
on the side of the road, next to
the creek with its night-huddled ducks,
its downriver geese, amid the rice fields
surrounding my borrowed room,
Cheonan this was, & sing, softly-
taxi, taxi,
hotel, hotel,
I got the whiskey baby,
I got the whiskey,
I got the cigarettes,
waiting for a ride that was lit.