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

toll 11.

–October 24, 2019