726. CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION

CONTRACTUAL
OBLIGATION
There's no cast to the angle :
the men who build bridges don't
care, and the others don't notice.
I'm sitting up in a leather chair,
my feet straight down. Reading, I'm
trying to beat my own slouch, or
slump, by consciously sitting up
straight (in that leather chair).
I may have said all this before.
-
Somewhere I've heard that
tonight is Chinese New Year.
Year of the dog rat snake,
whichever. It hardly matters,
never in fact, to me. I surmise,
like some dumb old horoscope,
that it's all meaningless drivel,
borne of ages, carried aloft and
then forgotten by modernity. Except
in glee, the glee of greetings and
greeting cards.
-
The man I used to know -
over there - Freddy or Frank,
is smoking a menthol cigarette.
He's looking out over the porch,
gazing at nothing. As I remember,
he was as dumb as an ox and a
pain in the ass too. I'm glad
he's alone. Smoking, these
days, is a very lonely gig.
-
There's no cast to the angle.
The men who build bridges
don't care, and the others
don't notice (a thing).