Broken men in leather coats that smelled like weed and Carlo Rossi taught me how to sound cool

Taught me how to judge and brush life off

Taught me how to tie my shoes with my eyes closed and someone else’s hands

Broken men in new shoes and no socks taught me how to drink warm vodka and cheap rum mixed with cream soda

Taught me that weeknights can be weekends to, it just depends what you drink after midnight

Broken men with pretty girls money taught me never to buy my own drinks, and if I do, to spill them on my dress and ask for more whiskey

Taught me nothing is free but blunts from handsome young men with no future

Broken men dressed in faded shirts taught me that an all black wardrobe signals ingenuity

That beer is warm and cheap only if you let your tongue think it is

And that the glass bottle of a 40oz is more classically artesian than a jeweled goblet

Broken men with ironed shirts, nice ties and dirty sneakers taught me how to dance in alley ways that don’t belong to me

They showed me how to hide from the world and give them all of me

These broken men showed me how they could build me up in the dark and walk away from the light

But they would never break me down, just let me float away

These broken men taught me how to break myself

Now I will teach myself how to hit the pavement with my heels when I walk