watching youtube videos
of baseball card breakers
as democracy fails again
the dilemma is
i could read hannah arendt
or watch faceless men with fat hands
rip open baseball card packs on youtube
the point is not to work
although i’m sure there is an incident to report
another leaking roof somewhere
in this wretched building
outside my office is the muffled din of calamity
twelve-year-old boys
playing sharpshooter games
that only show you the barrel of a gun
there is a homeless man
who has locked himself up in our bathroom
for almost an hour
showering by flushing the toilet over and over
customers and staff
keep informing me about him
as if i were his warden
and all i can think
is though i may live in a sanctuary city
there is really no sanctuary from america
i choose the baseball card breakers
over the arendt
it is an easy choice to make
as democracy fails again
there is no totalitarianism
in watching a faceless man rip packs
looking for cardboard heroes
shouting in joy
like children
it’s just some triviality to cover over the dark
a little sanctuary for me within his sanctuary
that won’t cost me my soul
as the homeless man
flushes the toilet again
and the boys playing video games
line up another shot in the crosshairs
screaming to each other
kill
kill
like some new american mantra.
--John Grochalski
No comments:
Post a Comment