Conversations With The Sea

Last night I spoke with a shark
who grinned a toothy grin and told me about
seas and wonders of the deep.
I asked him if he was planning to eat me
because it seemed a natural concern and he just smiled
and said he gets asked that all the time. It must get annoying,
for everyone you meet to assume you are a killer, but that is the way of things
and perception
I guess, because we all make assumptions, and sometimes those assumptions
and judgements
save us, and sometime those assumptions eat us alive. Like sharks.

And there I go, being totally racist, in the most literal sense of the word, how embarrassing.

Anyways, I asked him if he or a bear would win in a fight, but I woke up before I could get an answer.

Somewhere To Be

I saw a man driving today
on the 24.
He is wearing a full suit, and an expensive one;
like one of those very very important people,
(Maybe he works in a bank. Not a branch bank like my Wells Fargo where
I still can't get anyone to just automatically transfer my money from savings to checking before my checking balance goes to zero and I have overdraft fees but I can't afford overdraft fees damnit because I'm a student and the money was right there all along so could you just take it from there beforehand because that's where it's going to come from, but a big bank making deals with Fortune 500 types with even more expensive suits.)
hair blowing in the summer hot sticky breath of a wind
like when you're far too close to someone's face.

And as he is using his arm to signal a right-hand merge
so that he can switch into the lane that will allow him to take
the downtown Lafayette exit I realize

he is driving a go-kart.

Toaster! Hate Him!

A soft, glaring light
The refrigerator hums anarchy
and calls the other appliances to rebellion.

"Lies!" I say to the Toaster
your facade may be White
but your heart is as Black as mine. (or the coffeemaker's)

"Of course," it replies.
"If I follow the refrigerator I will surely die.
For his way is bleak and cold
and preserves the old,
but still I cannot help you.
For you are a harsh master,
it is 4 AM,
and if your toaster speaks to you, it is time for bed."