News Item

“New research suggests we have a fixed reservoir of self-restraint.”

 

 

This is why at the end of the day

you smuggle bowls of ice cream to the TV

 

Or put another way

when you pushed your plate aside

and hunger kneaded your gut for months

this is why you crammed the closet with new clothes

and emerged from your diving bell

in a breathless hotel room

why you let the coat fall from your shoulders

 

That manic week

when you ironed every shirt and tablecloth

why you couldn’t keep up with the grief

 

Last night sirens passed close

this morning the airwaves crash and moil

and your mail is flooded with catalogs

 

This is why you’ve staged your house like a catalog

why you can’t bear to open the bills

why streets are jammed with luxury cars

and panhandlers

and your country is at war

 

 

previously published in Tar River Poetry (Spring 2012)