almost okay

Decisions Decisions

Mornings can be tough
Have to pick a coffee mug
You know, to get my ration of joe
From which to drink my daily dose
Of Go Juice, dig?

Once I've gone through my entire set
Of Dubble Bubble mugs - the ones
Found at Browse & Bargain
Two dollars for six including
The mug rack - good deal!
Then I work my way through
The rest before it's time to
Wash the dishes again

Once every two weeks
Whether they need it or not
Just like clockwork

There's that Marsh Electric mug
With metric conversions on the side
Two Sam's Jams 10th Anniversary cups
Faded red ink so only I know their story
A couple of McDonald's cups, smaller
A Japanese style one, hand-painted glaze

But then I get down to the two that really
Cause the problems, increase my stress
The ones that remind me of her...

The first one has a cartoon skeleton
Lying against a cactus in the desert
With a caption that reads:
'But It's a Dry Heat'
Gaudy reds, oranges & greens
She brought that one back for me
From a business trip to Arizona
She thought it was funny

Bad mug number two came from France
Her Christmas trip to Paris to visit
Her family towards the end of us
The one with the Eiffel Tower on it
Flat handle shaped like the Eiffel Tower
Too much Eiffel Tower for my taste

Both of them stamped 'Made In China'
Both of them make the coffee bitter

I suppose I could toss them
Just put them in the trash or
Sell them at a garage sale
Smashing them against the cement
In the driveway might even be nice

But you see I don't want to
Forget her
I just want to forget all of the
Bad times

So twice a month I rue the day
When I became so lazy, so slothful
That I refuse to do a simple chore
Like washing the dishes
Every night

Twice each month
I remember
Mostly the
Bad times

-Prof. Dirk Beat

20/20 Confusion

Sometimes I can see through
Everything

I just stare off into space
& see right through...

The shiny black & white tiled
wall behind the counter at this diner

The strip malls surrounded by
manicured bushes & tethered saplings,
planted after razing the forest
to make way for more parking lots,
condos & Dollar Store plastic

The traffic: the noisy smear of
orangeblueblackwhiteredblue
speeding carstrucksSUVs

The hideous people with their
dazed expressions stumbling
along the sidewalks

My own ghostly reflection
in the rearview/bathroom mirror

The screaming, spoiled children
who demand to be heard above all

Like a tragic, magical X-Ray
The shit all disappears from view &
The tunnel vision narrows,
Whisks me back to the past
To some horrible memory
Different each time
Sometimes just
A sad feeling

I smell the toast
I hear the honking horns
I wither & die a little more

-Prof. Dirk Beat