karaoke night

by Fred Aiken

dust coats the back of my throat,
at times 	it becomes 	difficult to breathe,
but amid the neon lights dancing across
a small, broken stage, i still get up,
to a drunken audience waiting to hear
my drunken rendition of yazoo’s
only you	on karaoke night
at a korean bar, in the middle of the week,
	i think i might
	call off work tomorrow		even if i’m not hungover