poem of the day 12.10.13

the gilded fry cook

i swear

that somewhere in america

there is a gilded fry cook

making fifteen dollars an hour to flip burgers

with full bennies

and two weeks paid vacation

a full-fledged union worker whistling

zip-a-dee-doo-dah as the meat fries

and the fat bubbles of the grille

or maybe that’s a myth they tell us

still

my wife tells me

that soon they’ll be paying the homeless

to become wi-fi hubs

it’s a little something to keep them

honest and on the ball

because we don’t tolerate quitters

we don’t tolerate the lazy in this country

but i’m not sure what i think about that

it’ll make a cool facebook status

for someone though

homeless dude stinks

but you can’t beat the connection, bro-ha

i wonder what’s next

we’ve made it almost a month here

without someone flipping out

and killing a bunch of random strangers

i guess i’m getting bored and complacent

i’m in need of an angry fix

in need of something to pass these end of days

a new chapter in this horror story

to curl my toes and scare me shitless

a deranged loner

hanging outside a packed mall

preparing his own doorbuster

uncle sam haggard and fed up

living on life support

a priest giving him last rites

while his lawyers give interviews

to the 24/7 news feed

another sports legend

jacked up on PEDs and steroids

maybe he could lose his mind

and kidnap a bus full of suburban kids

going on a field trip to a church

half of them wearing his team colors

he could hold them up for ransom somewhere

have it paid in euros when football season ends

so he could get the hell out of america

return them all unharmed and smiling

with autographed glossies

plead for mercy

plead insanity

play highlight reels until the jury is numb

lock him up and give him the best

health care imaginable

the kind that everyone gets here now

from the president all the way down to the fry cook

to me and you

and the homeless dude

with the wireless router

embedded in his brain.