poem of the day 06.21.10

and thus it begins...summer. I'll be in the apartment
until October.


the lunatic

the lunatic
has decided that he’ll only
deal with me now

i’m his go to guy

the lunatic
comes into the job
all the way from long island
he needs to use the phone to call his student
but doesn’t have a cell phone
because he doesn’t believe in them

he asks me if this is weird
i tell him no
it’s hard to believe in something
that connects you to other people

the lunatic
has aspergers and ocd
he stares right through you as he talks
needs a new pen for every page
doesn’t like his forms touched
he tells me that if someone in here
touches his jacket that it’ll end him

the joint is full of people
on a tuesday afternoon

the lunatic
can’t stand his parents anymore, he says
he can’t stand them or his brother
or his brother’s wife, or his aunt
he wants to move out
but can’t part with the money to do so
plus he keeps losing jobs

the lunatic
is too anxious
he calls temp agencies over and over again
this turns them off
he says it’s the aspergers and ocd
i have no cause to doubt him
i’m just curious about how many people
live in that house

the lunatic
asks me if i’d live with my parents
just to save money
i tell him
that i’d live in a cardboard box
before i’d move back home
i’d eat garbage, i say
if i were an attractive man,
i’d probably whore myself out
not to end up back underneath their roof

the lunatic
he doesn’t understand this
but think of all the money you’d save, he says

the lunatic
obviously hates freedom and america

the lunatic
just stands there at the desk
while i’m trying to kill another day here
he seems lost
has nowhere to go
he’s just like the rest of us

he asks me if he can use the phone again
to call his student

i tell him to go ahead
only i can’t believe someone would
let this lunatic tutor their child

the lunatic
was still there when i left the job
who’s going to help me now? he asks
don’t know, i say
then i walk out into the heat of early june
trying to shake him off
trying to shake them all off

it’s too hot for early june, i think

so i start walking toward the bar