5:23PM

home from work
I collapse onto a soft sofa
absorbing dark solitude
when there's a racket outside my window

my neighbor is home
and shooting country music down my ear canals
like folksy electric bullets
Will I survive? Probably

but long awaited relief
is bleeding out
the quiet dark ground to powder between my teeth
and I can't feel my sense of humor

turn that shit down I scream
to myself
as he scrubs the same truck tire
a third time