Tuesday, November 11, 2014

poem of the day 11.11.14


a healthy man’s lunch

at work
eating a bowl full of salad

because i am reaching the age
where i can no longer eat
what i’d like to eat for lunch every day

i am told a meal of mixed vegetables
could keep me around for a long time

but looking around this room at the bored faces
buried in books and their phones
people also indulging in salad and their own health

colleagues crawling toward
another american retirement

i think, keeping me around for what?
oh…yes…i may one day see peru

but the salad is cold
it’s wilted from chemicals
every third bite there’s something hard
like grit in my mouth

when i pull a bit out
it’s small and white and crystal
like salt or sugar or glass

then i am just another character in a prison film
being served his poison

so i dump the salad
gleefully watch all of the longevity
mix with the other trash

fall back into my chair
to watch time move toward the afternoon

daydreaming
vistas of pepperoni pizza

and wide rivers
of coca-cola.                                        

No comments: