I can bear the dead-eyed stupidity
of rush-hour traffic,
endure mindless rage
from embattled commuters.
I can take orders from crackpots
and charlatans,
suffer the drudgery of office politics
and the bruising march
to another payday.
I can do that, I tell you.
And I can face the terror
of the ordinary citizen
and his ordinary ways.
Have I not withstood it
these many years?
So, if it's not too much to ask,
my Darling,
would you kindly acquit
a few dirty dishes in the sink,
loose change in the laundry,
forgetting to report
that your mother dropped by?
Because I am starved
for a tender, graceful touch,
My Love,
else this pressure-cooker existence
could ignite into a desperate
and calamitous folly:
MAN GOES BERSERK.
SHOOTS TWENTY IN OFFICE BUILDING.
WIFE BITTER
HE LEFT THE TOILET SEAT UP.
**First published in Pearl literary magazine
