I Know, Right? by Mather Schneider

My cheeks are as clear
as a baby’s bottom.
I have a friend in Chile
he says he’s gonna take me hiking
when I go visit.

I also have a friend in Germany.
He says people cut their hair themselves there.
They are individualists
and they talk about Shakespeare
and Goethe
while doing their laundry, like, I know
right?

I’ve got a very global
perspective, it just comes
natural.
I feel terribly for those people starving
all over the place
and I wish there was something I could
do about it
and the bombs and killing and I mean
why do people have to
fight all the time?
Why can’t they just
do yoga
they’d surely feel a lot
more wholesome.

I work part time at the co-op grocery store
so I can buy my American Spirit cigarettes
which I smoke between classes
at the foot of the Cesar Chavez statue
who did so much for the
people from Peru.
I’m a comparative religion major
with a minor in poetry
as you can see from my dread locks I have a
very rebellious soul.

Look at me
walking down 4th Avenue
toward the Moon Coffee Shop
and wallow in the glow of my humility.

Mather Schneider is 46 years old. He has had hundreds of poems and stories published since 1993 in places like Rattle, Nerve Cowboy, Slipstream, Nimrod, River Styx and Smokelong. He has 3 full length books, DROUGHT RESISTANT STRAIN, HE TOOK A CAB and THE SMALL HEARTS OF ANTS, with another, PRICKLY, coming early in 2017. He divides his time between Tucson, Arizona and northern Mexico, where his wife is from. He earns his living by driving a cab.