Irreverent Extras
It's the irreverent soda stain which irks me today
swelling the wood milky white in a ring
and satisfying that place in my brain's back pocket
which daily refuses to be satisfied.
Lipstick on the coffee cup at Waffle House
- it isn't mine.
Daily "free" newspapers wrapped in orange plastic skin
which contain the little bits of chewed life
of people that I shouldn't like to know.
- I don't ask for it - it just shows up like clockwork,
thrown from a passing van with a leaky exhaust.
The mirror making sure that I see the new wrinkle
on my forehead.
- This isn't my face. At least, I don't think so.
and my brain stuffs it's back pocket 'till overflowed.
Soda stains and lipstick DNA and newspapers
stacked with ads for new tires and bingo game
pot luck dinner jubilees.
And wrinkles.
Plenty of wrinkles to dissatisfy my common sense
and tell me that although I'd like a clean slate,
to not be bogged down by extras,
they are there irreverently facing me in the mirror every day.
Someday soon, I've got to clean out my pockets.
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