PAD 2012 - Day 2

Work is an aquarium, saltwater
(so the injuries burn more)

There are jellyfish floating everywhere, billowing out
tentacles grasping at anyone foolish enough to imagine them friends.

Suited sharks eye schools of fish
everyday a lesson in navigating, survival.

I am an urchin hiding amongst the reef, prickly
use my spindles to keep the rest of the tank at bay.

Day 1

The day my mutant powers manifested at work
no one noticed, bins toppled
children continued to cry.  We kept the lines moving,
that day, like everyday; precariously balancing: security, customer
service, and wait times.  No one stopped their rush,
their rhythm, the apex of their daily grooves
to notice.  My skin hardened, eyes
flashed pain.  I almost crumbled, but didn't
determined to keep walking upright, despite: diamond skin,
glowing eyes, the new strength of my arms.

It's off to work we go...

I race to arrive at a place I disdain, a fixture
in perpetual arrivals
and departures.  Cloaked in a scowl
an aura that screams for distance.  I invision myself invisible,
untouchable: Queen; of the Escalators,
of the maze of gates , of a path I could walk blindfolded.

I destroy my actuality
for eight and a half solid hours, supress
the "fuck it" on the tip of tongue and finger.

When that sentence is sufficiently served, I am a little less
proud   myself    alive...a little more: tired  disgusted  angry...  
Mask on a bit more firmly, to fall
into a dreamless sleep, wake to rinse and repeat.

Don't know if this s finished it came to me on my commute...