One of Those Mondays
Yeah, it’s Monday and I’m wearing Levi’s to work,
missing the train that would mean being late by
fifteen minutes instead of a half hour. But, hey,
who’s keeping track of me anyhow—the kid dozing
in the corner in rainbow-skulled pants, eyes capped
tight with an unofficial, yellow-B’d Sox hat?
Hell. Only at Back Bay, and the reader on my left is
inching his stupid leg over. Perversion at 10 a.m.?
I’d like this weekend’s rain back while winding along
cowpaths on the Common in this sunless humidity.
Considering the week’s beginning, I should be glum
today, but rising on the escalator, all I see is rainbow.
Hump Day
You don’t need a penny just to hang around. But if you
have a nickel, won’t you lay your money down?
–Creedence Clearwater Revival
Carrying a community with me—a galpal,
a publisher, a lover, all my friends who come
along for the ride—I’m going to nine to five.
…and, yeah, we all have dayjobs, pay bills,
tend gardens, volunteer, but I’ll be landing
at a pub tonight—nothing like a midweek beer.
Most of my coworkers aren’t artists. I shuffle
some music, press breasts to the semi-read
chapbooks on the way to stack papers.
Earning a living one day at a time, I count
hours ‘til Brian and I visit margaritaville,
maybe see Jimmy Tingle again in a tizzy.
…and, yeah, I’m toting the words of a lover
on the train, in my dreams, to the swivelchair,
hoping the baggage won’t weigh me down.
(Removed for publication consideration)
Enough, Already
[For Tina G.]
Ran out of time and money–looks like they took my friends.
–Creedence Clearwater Revival
Cranking CCR to drown out the sounds
of summer whiners, cuz I hate the heat
enough already on my own, I stomp
at a pigeon—well, I’m just evil that way
–and this young girl, obviously disturbed,
wags her finger like I kicked a puppy.
Enough, already with nutcases on the T,
whack-job neighbors with gigantic bird
feeders, big bleeding hearts welcoming
all types of nature to my damned porch too.
A working girl deserves, for chrissake,
to come home from 40 hours to a view.
“Foreclosed…leads a mother to kill herself.”
Headlining the flippin’ Metro. Man, I can’t
wait until the rain washes all this crap away.
