It's not every day you hit a milestone. This one is huge for me. It's my 100th blog post. Therefore, I knew I had to make sure it was something special. Easy peasy.
When I began assembling this collection, I made sure our fearless leader was in the loop. He was in the midst of finishing off the Resistance Front anthology, writing the novel (Superbia) that he knew could destroy his career as a police detective, and probably trying to decide what to get his kids for Christmas.
So the last thing I expected to see in my email was a poem from him. He said he wanted to show his support, that I didn't have to use it if I didn't like it or didn't want to. I don't think he realized how much that simple act meant to me.
By the way, as I'm sitting here writing this introduction, he's sitting in PA revising the darn thing...again. Writers.
If you click on the poem's title, you'll be whisked away to Bernard's Youtube page where you'll have the unique treat of watching the man himself read the poem, a slightly different version than you'll read below, which is a slightly different version than you'll read in his collection Knife Fights. That same video got him sent back to uniform.
We later discussed this post and I was going to use a different one from the Knife Fights collection, but I noticed that Bernard had re-posted the video and asked his permission to use it. He replied, "Sure. We can do wait and wait. Fuck em!"
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| Superbia is available on Amazon for your Kindle and in print |
(originally titled WEIGHT)
by Bernard Schaffer
Waiting for the dealer to arrive
they are always late
moving through life with
no need to be concerned about
the overtime that is accruing or
the women who are growing impatient while their men
sit in trash covered cars
pissing into empty coffee cups
because the dealer might arrive at any moment
and
their customers will wait and wait
just grateful for the fix they bring whenever they
feel like showing up.
The buy money is pre-recorded
the CI is searched
the team is given the operational plan and
everyone is in their assigned positions.
I am always calm
always need to piss again
always need more coffee
always waiting for the transaction that will take
ten seconds to happen
so that after it is sold
and brought back to me
I can secure it, photograph it
record it, bag it
tag it, and produce it later at court.
The dealer will make me wait
and I will oblige him for now
but
when it is my turn
to go and see him
I will be right on time.
Bernard Schaffer is the best-selling author of Guns of Seneca 6, Whitechapel: The Final Stand of Sherlock Holmes, and more. Visit his website at www.ApiarySociety.com
Because I can't resist, here's the first bio B sent me:
Bernard Schaffer is most amazingly awesome muhfukka on the planet. Give him the rock when there are ten seconds left on the clock and he’ll take it to the hole. Guaranteed. He doesn’t need a link. The internet was invented to showcase him. Word.
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