Good Advice

By Michael Internicola

___________________

bob said, "i can't believe you only read half
my short story."-i told him get used to it.
he also told me not to leave it around. didn't
want anyone to steal the title. miami somethin'
somethin' he called it. he did a treatment for a
pilot but didn't even write the first show. said
he had three meetings with hbo and everything.
he had an idea about a bellman in a new york
hotel. actors trying to make it. at least five words
on the front page i never saw before in my life.
couldn't understand the meaning. he works the
door at a joint i hang out at three times a week. my
roommates behind the bar so i got it covered. i
never pay a cent. last night when i was leaving
with the fat girls he asked me, "so what you think,
mike?"-i stopped, lit up a cigarette and stood there
tapping him on the shoulder, "write what you know,
bobby."-i said, "and don't ever fucking write what
you don't."

___________________

A novelist, M.A. Internicola is the author of three previous novels, Kiss Me Baby, Sunflowers!, Chaz, and All Our Skies Are Blue. The poems included here are from two separate poetry books, Malism and The Darkest Places Under A Streetlight, both completed early 2004. His poems/short stories have appeared in “Caffeine Magazine,” “Zygote In My Coffee,” “Remark,” “The Quadrangle,” “Mule,” “Spent Meat,” “The-Hold,” “Antipatico,” “Lunatic Chameleon,” “Kant Magazine,” “Fragment Magazine,” “James River Poetry Review” and “The Mosquito Lounge Review.” He lives in New York City.