Patrick Carrington

RANDOM RULES FROM THE BROOKLYN MEN'S
FIELD MANUAL AND SURVIVAL GUIDE

(Chapter 1 – If It’s Got Tits or Wheels)

4 – Though it’s true drunks survive crashes
and all manner of accidents better,
it is nevertheless wise not to go
near your jalopy with jumper cables
when you’re toasted. And never,
never get in, even in
the unlikely event that it does still start.

10 – Understand your physiology,
your two heads, but also your nature.
Despite God’s forethought
in introducing women into the world,
don’t bank too heavily on his plan
that they’ll fuck some sense into you.

19 – Never be too quick to trust
a flimsy truth that survives
the wreckage around you. It could be
Lady Luck talking. Or the rum.

24 – It’s okay to find sadness beautiful.
Avoid anyone who never wears black.
If necessary, angels may be included
on the list of what to wait for.
They’re rarely as sacred as you think.

Previously published in The Pinch

Patrick Carrington is the author of Hard Blessings (MSR Publishing, 2008), Thirst (Codhill, 2007), and Rise, Fall and Acceptance (MSR Publishing, 2006), and winner of New Delta Review’s 2008 Matt Clark Prize and Yemassee’s Pocataligo Contest in poetry. His poems are forthcoming in The Bellingham Review, West Branch, The Connecticut Review, Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing in New Jersey and serves as the poetry editor of Mannequin Envy.