Zumwalt Poems Online

PSYCHOLOGO

PSYCHOLOGO    

my table is busted
a sore sight to see
and the metal-grill chair
is as comfortable
as a bed of needles.
a pretty girl in a blue jacket
and in maroon cords
reads the school paper;
she is in a trance.
a small audience is watching
a couple of college students
playing five-minute chess.
a young women on the other side of the room
gazes at me over the rim of a
white coffee cup.

i burnt myself this morning
frying up french toast
and the pain mingles with everything else
like short-wave radio static.
1.3 GPA
yells a figure with sideburns
and a number of people
in his group laugh
until their heads fall off
and someone has to come
and put them back on.

sitting cross-legged on the carpet
and from a distance
it all looks like
a game of charades,
long, long hair
and i find myself stare.

i am thinking of leaving
PROTECT YOUR LOUNGE ENVIRONMENT
TAKE THE TIME TO BUS YOUR OWN TRASH
a famous musician enters,
but no one recognizes him.
a cloud hangs over,
but then again
maybe it's just the plumbing.
my eyesight is shot
everything in the distance
all looks the same
and now it is only my table
that is different from the others.

-- zumwalt (1974)
[reformatted for WordPress display]

Comments on: "PSYCHOLOGO" (4)

  1. M Jay Dixit's avatar

    A great description of everyday life events! 👏👏👏

    Like

  2. Doug's avatar

    [I’m wondering if it’s our table is “bussed” in light of PROTECT YOUR LOUNGE ENVIRONMENT
    TAKE THE TIME TO BUS YOUR OWN TRASH.
    or there were criminal acts committed at the table (busted)]
    Enjoyed the disorder of heads falling off and the diligence of people putting the heads back on. Clouds are more natural than a fire sprinkler system.
    Did the famous musician take a bus? Don’t know why no one was fussing. I guess after bussing and cussing and watching heads roll in a cloudy room, a musician might not feel like playing chess, unless he’s an old cowboy musician who wrote “Home, home on the range where the deer and the antelope play, and seldom is heard a discouraging word and the sky is not cloudy all day…”

    Liked by 1 person

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