talking travel with
the verizon man
i watch the verizon technician
set up my new internet behemoth
a large router and cords galore
this upright console that looks like a video game machine
all this machinery
just to send out poems and look at porn
he tells me that i can get cable through it
looks suspect when i say i don’t have cable
well, you can stream movies anyway, he says
with all of this increased mbps
but all that i notice is that this set-up
has taken up an entire outlet
and i have nowhere now to plug in my fan
new york city apartments in late autumn
and you still need a fan most days
i want to tell the verizon man
that new york city is depressing in the fall
that it’s not like in the movies but still too warm
i want to ask him about climate change
point to my fios that’s lit up like x-mas lights
and ask him
how many of us really need this shit?
but instead i sit there and watch him work
like everyone else who has nothing to do
he talks about the mets, the war,
and how expensive it is to pay for college for his daughter
the verizon technician looks at the pictures on my walls
he says, christ, you sure travel a lot
which embarrasses me
makes me want to show him the broken windows
and the student loan debt
prove to him that i’m still the salt of the earth
but when the verizon man points to a picture
of the leaning tower of pisa and says,
hey, the eiffel tower
i nod and say yep
then like an asshole tell him
that it looks even better
when you get the chance to see it live and in person.
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