by Steve Hellyard Swartz
Over there’s the old man who presides as if he were the host
He gets all his opinions in the pages of the Post
His wife sits to his right
She pretends not to hear when he asks for a light
The fellow who joins them says Are smiles still for free?
He’s busy grabbing brass rings in a down economy
The guy in the suit is talking about straight salary over commission
The woman he’s with says Starting Monday I’m a woman on a mission
A woman on her cell says They’ll tell you there’s no formula/There is a formula
Her baby in his high chair stares and thinks There’s so much I can learn from her
The redhead sits down and plays with her hair as if she knows she’ll end up in a poem
The man who can’t believe that the sacrifice of his coffee will afford him the luxury of
health insurance
Throws himself a bone
Steve Hellyard Swartz is a regular contributor to The New Verse News. His poems have also appeared in best poem, switched-on gutenberg, Haggard and Halloo, and The Kennesaw Review. He has won honorable mention in The Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards (2007 and 2008), The Mary C. Mohr and the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Awards. In 1990, his film, Never Leave Nevada opened at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
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