How I Calm Myself

by Flo Selfman

Publicist and IWOSC President Flo Selfman is a poet of urban dis-harmony. 

The ground shakes, the windows rattle. The cats perk up their ears
and, wide-eyed, look to me for reassurance.

"It's ok, babies," I tell them. "It's just a garbage truck."

My home office has great ventilation,
lots of windows --
and
lots of noise from outside.

Trash trucks, leaf
blowers, car alarms
screaming bells and
whistles
of urban dis-harmony.

And I am on deadline.
The phones are ringing. I trip over a basket of unfiled
papers. The damn computer shuts down again, bidden
by unseen forces from cyberspace.

I want to break something! The phone? The computer?
A dish?

No, because then I will
have to replace it, pay for it, clean it up.

Lady! Calm down!
Breathe!
From the abdomen.

Radio!
C. . .h...o...p...i...n...

###

  © Flo Selfman 1997 

This page was last updated on Thursday, November 3, 2005 at 1:20 PM