flood3

I don’t know what the flood
is up to today
I didn’t read the morning paper
or hear the radio tell the news about
stealers, rapers, and hurt lonesome people
I didn’t see the T.V. yet so I didn’t see the
latest about the muggers and killers
and the hurt, lonesome ones.
I didn’t want to listen to the flood today.
I wanted to rest from the flood today.
I didn’t want to get lead blind by
the sex jag or pushed around by the war game.
So I sat in a chair today in Ward’s kitchen
and wrote about the flood and the
waters rose up and moved over me.
And then someone turned the radio on
and underneath a blanket the T.V. yawned
and blinked and burped up facts and
I remembered the wind on the road
and I knew that I should be gone.

Ian David Arlett