Time Off

I'm still working, at jobs I’ve avoided, my whole life.

I've howled at windows, and bayed at hens, in the indifferent moonlight.

Where is the learning, in learning, in restless quiescence?

Should I dare to breathe? Will it betray me again?

Will they mistake me for another, other?

Bicyclists are run-down like dogs, by crazed garbage truck drivers.

Famous loons with palsy, selling journalists.

Every story is life denied.

And the sports and love affairs are distraction.

Work is a respite from thinking. And the rage is sometimes blinding. . . .

The time goes fast and slow, oscillating. I sit inside and refuse to write.

A brief phrase heard from a Mexican baker below.

A thud, then silence, and the echos thereafter.

An unsettled peace, and the water slowly rising, and lapping at the shore.

Dystopia pervades, and is sublime, like watching a home burn down.

Photo albums of Christmas memories engulfed in flame.

People try to hide from it, to prolong the meaningless waltz of words, and the aimless milling-about of simpletons.

I saw the smiles on all the faces, as the two paramilitary cops joked, not sure if it was for fear, love or self-preservation.

It's like some sick fantasy or an idyllic nightmare conjured by a maniac.

Methane gurgles to the surface. Leukemia fish are thrown on the grill.

Balls are kicked, and all the heroes die first or last.

Ice cream is served. Bombs are dropped.

Land and resources robbed.

Here's my C.V. Which collar does my neck fit into? Will my S.U.V. fit into that space?

Some albedo saves us, waiting for some grand gesture that never comes.

I cough lead paint and light another cigarette. I down another vodka and soda like I'll never catch-up...to the madness.

"The game is rigged," but you're still a failure for not playing.

The grain gets scarce, and people laugh at one another for having naught.

Here's a kick in the face, in the famished desert, from a soldier's boot.

Both the starving and the over-fed dance about like mirror images in a deck of cards.

"The house always wins. . . ."