Workweek Headline

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 me

of a few dirty dishes in the sink,

loose change in the laundry,
forgetting to report

that your mother dropped by?

Grant me some tenderness,

lest these accumulated grievances

ignite some calamitous folly:

        MAN GOES BERSERK.

        SHOOTS TWENTY IN OFFICE BUILDING.

        WIFE STILL ANGRY
        HE LEFT THE TOILET SEAT UP.

**First published in Pearl literary magazine