Customer Installation Technician

Think beyond the self’s demands and be
a patience paragon, a Patron Saint of
Gentle Ears, and listen, wholly listen, Holy Listen
to this man in need drone on about his wife, his child,
his High School Days, glory or not, and think beyond
the self’s demands and know we all want
     not to be heard
     but listened to

but damn it, all I want is for him to
plug this Cord into this Box
and crucify this Box to this Wall
which he needed to do twenty minutes ago
when the Saints won the toss
and chose to receive
and have me sign this form
and press hard to summon some god in triplicate

and Oh my smile is starting to hurt my face
and Oh I don’t know if I can muster the strength
nor listen any more
and still think these thoughts and yet still
am thinking

     Shut Up
     Shut Up, You Demonic Fuck

and I can’t tell if I’m praying for him
or myself to do just that.

Death Comes as an Unrelenting Tide of Destruction, Study Shows

Concerning the August 10, 2018 Newsweek article by Katherine Hignett titled “Death Comes as an Unrelenting Tide of Destruction, Study Shows”

Science says the cells
         self-destruct

like a wave round the crowd
         at a football game, it says;
or like a trail of
         falling dominoes, it claims;
or like fire through 
         a forest.

But how about a yawn contagiously stalking
         the neighbor;
or a shock snaking
         the circle of clasped hands in the physics class;
or better yet, Genghis Khan marching
         over the known world?

Here:
how about the bomb blast through
        the mid-morning market?

                  Swift, if you’re lucky,
                  and always
        meant for someone—

                  anyone—
              
       other
                  than you.