Friday, March 15, 2013

poem of the day 03.15.13


the longest ten minutes

he says
i’ll be about ten minutes

then he puts down the phone
and starts shuffling around in his seat

i can feel him looking at me
while i’m trying to read

his foot tapping like a junkie
sighs and stale nicotine breath emanating

two cellphones and a sidekick clogging his hands
as he starts bobbing his head to nothing

i look up and we make contact

he’s got red eyes and gray hair
and little else to his personality

picks up his phone again
(i don’t know which one) and dials

gets no one
sighs again into the almighty void
of slowly moving time

takes his sidekick and turns it sideways

slumps into his seat
like a fifteen year-old boy

starts playing a loud video game
slapping the controllers with his thumbs

making grunts as both of his phones go off
and he shouts, shit, shit, shit

doesn’t know what to pick up first

i look at him again
those red eyes strained
the hair somehow grayer
and i think this must be what my old man meant
by tech overload

doing anything to not be alone with your thoughts

as i watch this man try to answer both phones
as the video game plays on his sidekick

random blasts infecting the b4 bus back to bay ridge

as his stop comes up like gangbusters
and he fumbles around
dropping everything on the piss-scented floor

angry
slouched and angry at the whole stupid world
that won’t fit on his video screens

storming off into the pounding winter rain

the longest ten minutes
that any one fool has ever had

                                                            

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