“I’ve addicted myself to other things. Like imagination, coffee, and sex.I put the crazy man I was. Into the crazy men I play”, James Franco writes.
Twenty-Year Chip is the Poetry movie by James Franco for the Public Pool projected launched at AWP Conference in L.A. by John Ebersole and Doncarlos Price. Public Pool publishes original poetry by today’s best poets.
Twenty-Year Chip
Twenty years ago, today,
I took my last drink of King Alcohol.
Breaking probation
After school:
Ken’s dad’s liquor in Ken’s backyard,
With Luke, Ivan, Beau, Matt ‘n Mike.
When Ken’s mom came home
We jumped the fence
And into my father’s
Hand-me-down Honda Accord,
A jumble of bodies on the road,
Over to Matt’s on Christmas Tree Lane.
But Beau had forgotten his weed.
On my way back with Beau,
The Accord went through a stop
On Middlefield Road, and a car
Slammed into our front,
Spinning the Accord.
I chose to drive away,
First a side street,
– letting Beau out –
And then a roundabout way
Back home, where
The cops were waiting.
I was made a ward of the court.
Ivan jumped from a parking
Garage in San Francisco;
Luke is in a rock band;
Ken lives in Japan; Beau, I don’t know; drunk driving,
Mike lost his license at age thirty-five.
I’ve addicted myself to other things
Like imagination, coffee, and sex.
I put the crazy man I was
Into the crazy men I play;
Acting is my drinking,
Movies are my drugs.