on not shaving
we have so little.
i mean choice.
we have so little choice.
what we want to eat
is even being taken away
these days.
we have so little.
and more and more
is falling off
every night
the sun hides its ugly face.
this morning
peering out the bathroom
window, lathered,
i watched two men stop
to greet each other
in the rain.
they laughed and talked
as the drops fell all over
them.
they looked happy
and well off.
they looked like
they had too much.
i wanted to kill them.
but i chose not to do it.
and i decided not to shave off
my one week old beard
as well.
John Grochalski is a writer whose column, 'The Lost Yinzer,' appears quarterly in The New Yinzer (www.newyinzer.com). His upcoming book of poems The Noose Doesn't Get Any Looser After You Punch Out is coming out via Six Gallery Press in 2008.