day NINE HUNDRED and NINETY

Spilled drink

I watched Kurt Vonnegut

Say in a Charlie Rose interview

Shortly before he died

That people are awful animals

That after two World Wars

The Holocaust

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The Roman Games

The Spanish Inquisition

The burning of witches in public

That we’re a disease

We should be ashamed of ourselves

“Shouldn’t we call it off?” Vonnegut said

I thought about my mother and father—

Good people,

Flaws drowned by their love

I thought about my uncle,

An alcoholic and a cynic

Who’d die for his children

I wondered about myself,

Paused

Maybe we’re not that bad

Maybe we’ll turn things around

At the table in front of me

A man dropped his drink,

Spilled on his wife’s feet

“I can’t believe you,” his wife shouted

“You wasted a good drink

“And now my feet are cold”

Her husband said nothing, smirked

She slapped him on the shoulder

Their baby cried

“Now look what you’ve done,” his wife accused

He no longer smirked

Another day, I might’ve intervened

Said, “Hey, be easy, things aren’t that bad”

But in that haunted moment

I remembered their battle was never mine 

-- Alex Z. Salinas