Haywire

April 16, 2017

Where were you last night

when it all went haywire?

When our daughter had “big math” homework

and you know

I’m number-dumb?

When your son’s buck teeth and stuttering

became bully-magnets? When he came home

black-eye angry in a tear-torn shirt?
Where were you last night

when dinner had been ready

for two hours?

When I flung it at the wall and

the kids scattered like cockroaches?

Spaghetti and burnt-stiff Italian sausage whirling

in the overhead fan; noodles

flailing like emaciated monkey arms in a jungle hurricane ―

hopeless and grasping for

imaginary bananas.

Sauce splattering the walls like a Mafia hit.

Where were you last night,

When I finally snapped

and snapped

rubber-band sting-sharp?

Where were you last night when I stopped

at Tommy C’s and got so fucking wine-happy

and tires skidding zigzags on asphalt

Where were you last night?

Ergo, the Ogre