Tuesday, October 5, 2010

poem of the day 10.05.10

candy

i have a dumb face
a public face
this kid sees it every day
and he keeps trying
to sell me candy
out of a catalog

it’s for his school

he sees my face
and he begins waving
the catalog at me

i have already humored him once
looking through the catalog
while he watched
my face looking
through the catalog
at all of the pictures
of chocolate and candies
presented so elaborately
that the confections just looked like
dull and tasteless sculptures

i told the kid that i had
no money that day
that he could catch me the next day

but of course
i was broke that day too

every other time
that he’s waved that catalog at me
i’ve told him that
i’m too busy to look at the candy

i tell him to come back tomorrow

i have no clue why
i can’t be honest with this kid

it’s almost become an obscene
ritual the way i duck him now
going this way or that
out of my way
giving him seedy sideways glances
whenever he starts waving
that fucking catalog at me

i’m trying my best to avoid him
in total right now

i hide in my office
whenever he comes in

i’ll be doing this until october ninth

that’s when the candy orders
are due in at school
which gives me
a good two weeks of freedom
before the christmas gift catalogs
are scheduled to come out.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

don't feel bad.. iused to duck and dive from my own kid's catalogs...

another good poem.. write a bad one for God's sake...

John Grochalski said...

i actually remember having to cart those things around when i was a kid....i promise tomorrow to put up a bad poem.

Anonymous said...

Yeah you say... Your bad is my best... and I never got to sell that stuff. I had a deprived childhood..jk

Pat Tillett said...

Nice poem. Our schools have them trying to sell jewelry out of a catalog! It's cheap stuff, but still...
One of the many reasons, I'm not fond of chillins...
I know it's not their fault, but I don't care about that. I am a sucker for the cookies though.

John Grochalski said...

Lynne...you're doing just fine with the poems. by "cart that stuff" i brought the things home and begged my mom to sell at work.

Pat...i broke down last year and bought these cheese crackers from some kid who comes in the library. she never gave them to me, and i was out $9. that's over the cost of a 12 pack of Natural Light to a guy like me.

Unknown said...

I hate buying crap from a catalog...