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