1-Star Witness

The ice-machine

down the hall

keeps telling you

things are breaking up.

This place has the most

interesting ceilings,

if that’s the kind of thing

you’re into. It keeps

getting later and then,

later you know

she’s not coming

at all with you.

How about those drapes?

Not clean, necessarily,

but, what a nice pattern.

You wish there was a reason

to draw them.

There’s a picture

of a ship on the wall

sailing for

a distant condo.

The ice-machine

has its say again.

You drag a chair

out onto the concrete.

You notice the ship

is floundering on a reef.

What can you do about that?

You’d love to gesso over it

and start again. Save the sailors

and send them home

to their waiting wives.

But, you know it’s pointless

and she’s not

coming with you at all.

The ice-machine keeps

ringing like a distant bell

sounding the hours.

You board the ship,

the wood scraping coral.

There should have been

a lighthouse. A lighthouse

to warn you. But, at least

you’ve got the ceiling

and the ice-machine

to tell you the hours

are passing.

The bottom of the sea

is merciful and shallow.

You drag the chair back inside.

You’re tired of smoking

and she’s not coming

with you. So, you sail

the few minutes left

until the reef does its work.

Until the ice-machine

tolls 11.

October 24, 2019