poem of the day 03.05.10

light bulb

and then i remember
that we forgot
to buy a light bulb
for the living room

i go around the apartment
turning on lights
seeing which ones match
so that i might borrow it
just for the morning

i grab a chair from the kitchen
and examine light fixtures
picking up the chair
moving it from room to room

none of them match

or else they are the last working light
in a fixture that already needs
new light bulbs

jesus christ, i think,
sitting on the chair in the middle
of the hallway

what is a man when he can’t even
get light?

is he no man at all?

i realize that this isn’t time
to be philosophical

it’s time for action

but i just sit there a while longer
wondering how regular people handle this shit
without wanting to kill someone or themselves
without wanting to throw a chair
through the living room window
laughing like a maniac
while some good neighbor calls the cops