eating a cheeseburger during the end times
the bar has
most of its televisions
turned to fox business channel
except for one playing
a mets/nationals game
from last year
the men in the bar
are watching the stock market crash
again and again
with as rapt attention
as they would ESPN
tomorrow the world is on lockdown
and this bar will be closed
like thousands of others
while we wait out the pandemic
but today is for eating a cheeseburger
during the end times
as men in the bar complain about the money
they’ll lose on the stock market
instead of maybe losing their health or their lives
men seem to worry
about the most trivial of things
in times of crsis
a week ago i was complaining about my job
yesterday i fought two people
for the last loaf of bread
and screamed to no one about the lack
of toilet paper and black beans
and who in the hell knows
if i’ll have a job to go back to
i probably should be indoors
reading books and hand sanitizing my soul
binge-watching a world
that now looks so foreign to me
but they make a damned good cheeseburger here
and it might be months, if ever,
before i get to have it again
the bartender, ross, is losing his job tomorrow
he just took a bath on disney an hour ago
and got a text that his fiancé lost her job right now
they were planning for a wedding in may
the unraveling is happening in real time
and there is nothing to do or say
but just sit here and wait on it
except for some guy in an FDNY t-shirt
who says…the flu killed more people yesterday
everyone laughs
and nods silently
they go back to watching
the stock market crash on tv
sucking up a trillion in government money
as i clear my second beer
and turn to the year old mets/nationals game
cheering when Juan Soto hit a double
a fool move for sure
but forgetting
forgetting all of this
if only for a moment.
--John Grochalski
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