poem of the day 05.30.13

it’s all my fault

yes

it’s all my fault, sir

that it took you seventy-minutes to fill-out

a basic application for wal-mart

and that you lost all of your info and your pc shut off

it’s all my fault that you’ve been unemployed for five years

yes, i know how long ago 2008 was

and it’s probably my fault too

that your lavender shirt is unwashed

and that other people have complained about the stink

they came up to me and said

can’t you do something about this?

so it must be my fault since they’re asking

it’s my fault too that i have a “cushy” job

my fault that i went and got a graduate degree

after years of dead-end employment

and, as a result, will be in debt  until the age of sixty-three

no, i wasn’t joking when i stood up at my desk and said,

here, you can have my fucking job, prick

because dealing with people like you makes me

want to go back on the dole

i wasn’t joking about that, sir

i’d gladly take unemployment again

those days and nights of bologna sandwiches and natural light beer

over dealing with and talking to people like you

it’s all my fault

are you happy?

my fault that your wife left you

that your kids won’t speak to you anymore

that you lost your apartment and your car

it was just so random how i singled you out

for malice and to humor the darkness

that rests in the pit of me

my fault that it’s fifty-eight degrees and raining outside

and that tomorrow it’ll be ninety and sunny

because obviously i control the weather too

it’s my fault, sir, that you had to drag yourself

to the depths of brooklyn from the bronx

that we weren’t open at ten o’clock to serve you

and that you waited outside in the rain for three hours

because you didn’t have the money for a cup of coffee

it’s my fault

all of it

your failed application

the drones in pakistan

benghazi and the carnage in syria

the missiles sailing over north korea

the bombings in afghanistan

congressional sequestration

and lindsay lohan being in back rehab

what can i say?

i’m sorry i guess

i’m a small and petty man

plus i never realized sitting in this chair

for eight hours a day

how much power that i wielded over common lives

i probably should’ve

after all, you’re not the first person today

who has told me

that it’s all my fault.