You're so Negative
When,
like a faulty airbag
deploying in your face
just as you’re lighting a cigarette,
“You’re so negative”
comes hissing out of her mouth at me,
my pal Phil, the Briton,
ever the deconstructionist,
weighs in with,
“That’s an horribly negative
thing to say,”
and my revenge demon
gleefully piles furniture
on the bonfire of my resentment.
But then I remember
what she does for a living,
prizing an extra ounce of morphine
out of the clenched fists of her
cretinous “colleagues”
(suffering makes us strong,
they believe),
to see serenity light the eyes
of a dying charbroiled infant.
Somebody’s brains spurted out
onto her lap the other day.
So I figure maybe
it takes one to know one.
And maybe she’s got a point,
with her preference for tales
of the requited love
of beautiful people;
of puppy dogs
nuzzling plump babes,
while sainted grandmothers
look on.
So I buy her a cup
of coffee and a piece
of cherry crumb pie,
and sing her a lullaby.
like a faulty airbag
deploying in your face
just as you’re lighting a cigarette,
“You’re so negative”
comes hissing out of her mouth at me,
my pal Phil, the Briton,
ever the deconstructionist,
weighs in with,
“That’s an horribly negative
thing to say,”
and my revenge demon
gleefully piles furniture
on the bonfire of my resentment.
But then I remember
what she does for a living,
prizing an extra ounce of morphine
out of the clenched fists of her
cretinous “colleagues”
(suffering makes us strong,
they believe),
to see serenity light the eyes
of a dying charbroiled infant.
Somebody’s brains spurted out
onto her lap the other day.
So I figure maybe
it takes one to know one.
And maybe she’s got a point,
with her preference for tales
of the requited love
of beautiful people;
of puppy dogs
nuzzling plump babes,
while sainted grandmothers
look on.
So I buy her a cup
of coffee and a piece
of cherry crumb pie,
and sing her a lullaby.
Page(s) 31
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