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it's scum that cleans the water
by Nanette Bellmanto get in the city water department
it's been proven
that you must be overweight,
balding,
and unhappily married.
you must gossip
more than any woman alive
and bicker like it's the View.
those are the prerequisites for the job.
after you're hired
is when they put your skills
to the test.
you go out to the local gas station
were you and your crew
spend your breaks.
you spend an extra 23 minutes
after your allotted 15
hitting on some girl who works there.
who's almost ten years your junior.
she welcomes your comments,
your compliments
and indulges in the attention
even though
she knows you're married
with a kid less than a year old.
and it's for those reasons why
when you proposition her
to meet you on Oakwood,
Knollwood or
whatever "wood" street
you happen to be working alone on,
she drives by but doesn't stop.
or when you follow her
off the off ramp
through the city
to her house
she walks down her driveway
screaming you everything
but an honest man.
she shut you don't for stalking.
but yet you tell your co-workers,
your boys,
that something happened
but you can't even name what
and that she broke it off
after finding out
she's an accomplice to adultery.
you spread your rumors like wild fires
until she comes back to town
after being gone for a few years.
she walks into a bar
punches the head of your union
in his face
just for thinking of the whole thing.
02/12/2009 Author's Note: the village bicycle is just a fairy tale.
Posted on 02/12/2009
Copyright © 2024 Nanette Bellman
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Gabriel Ricard on 02/12/09 at 06:21 PM I really like that third-to-last stanza. Nicely done, and I think you really did some interesting with the style and approach. It's not something we see out of you everyday. |
| Posted by Laurie Blum on 02/12/09 at 07:45 PM SUch an entertaining tale Nanette. Plus the author's comment really brings the whole piece home! You've really got something here. |
| Posted by Johnny Crimson on 02/13/09 at 12:14 PM the damn complainers of the world, and you've described them all so nicely. (him) |
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