William Waters
 

Beside The Jukebox

at a bar
over in the corner,

                                                 a man
                                                 has a red dinner jacket
                                                 on his tongue;

             the woman with him
             has gunk
             between her teeth.

                                    the dinner jacket
                                    keeps twisting
                                    his words
                                    to catch
                                    the light;
                       
                                    the gunk
                                    picks her
                                    teeth.
                       
nobody's dancing
but someone's

                                    picking songs.
 

Trying Time
 
A fool is nothing but a man undone, by trying time;
and if in trying time he finds the sun
as wanton as black night
lacking mercy, love, or light--
then let his abuse be of use to you,
for what’s a fool to do?
Who will not try time, time tries
until with every truth the plaintiff lies,
as dust must, when broken from the bone
sanctified and cast beneath a stone.
 

William Waters is an associate professor, in the Department of English at the University of Houston Downtown. Along with Sonja Foss, he is coauthor of Destination Dissertation: A Traveler’s Guide to a Done Dissertation. His research and teaching interests are in writing theory and modern grammar. contact