day SIX HUNDRED

methane

if i could count

the years slinging newspapers

as taxable income

then i could say

that i have been working steadily

for over thirty years

that’s a lot of time given over

to the nonsense and pointlessness

inherent in mankind

it is enough to make one

bleed the years and weep

but instead i sit here tonight

the vodka swirling in my head

over wilted vegetables and burnt steak

thinking of all of the cows

the thousands, the millions of them

grazing in fields and suffering in cages

farting and shitting methane into the air

strangling the atmosphere

and also making this planet

inhospitable to human life

i think of all those cows

i think of all of those years

then i bow my head

and curse an unloving and false god

called america

pick up my fork full of burnt meat

and take

a bite.

--John Grochalski