Thomas Alan Waits

That big fucking bomb made me deaf

—Tom Waits, Hell Broke Luce

I must apologize

for my critique. Poking fun

at all things Waits:

his stupid, slanted hat,

cliché cigarette,

his voice akin

to a Muppet—

more gravel

than the dust

off sideroad 5.

Makes a brooding

Leonard Cohen

sound like

Aaron Neville

in compare.

I abhorred the

whined falsettos

of Brothers Gibb,

thought disco

was the pits;

but here I sit & mull,

if there’s something worse

than dancing with

your finger to the ceiling,

feigning that you’re happy

& that it’s sky.

Andreas Gripp

April 22, 2025

Tom Waits in 2011