My Roommate/My Muse

There’s something beautiful and mysterious
about the whole thing

when you leave your period stains
on the toilet seat

or try to convince me
why I need to pay most of the gas bill

there’s a poem in there
somewhere

when you leave rice
on the floor for three weeks

or I come home
to the sound of Pink Floyd
and fat people sex

there’s something beautiful and mysterious
about the whole thing

When you tell my friends to get out
even though the lease
is in both of our names

or leave crusted rice
all over my good scotch glass

or drink my tonic water

or drink my beer

or accuse me
of going through your things
when I ask for a piece of dental floss

there’s a beautiful and mysterious poem in there somewhere

like Walt Whitman

or John Donne

or the mysterious haiku poets
of ancient Japan

that inscribed their poems on mountain tops

and were inspired by the clouds

there’s a poem in there somewhere

just for you

when I find your hair
in the bathtub drain

or the sink

or the couch

or my clothes

or you show me
those beautiful drawings you do

which consist of zigzags
and squiggly lines
and crumpled up pieces of toilet paper

I want to go to the mountaintops

and shout your name

like the ancient haiku poets
of Japan

I want to shout a beautiful and mysterious poem

that I just haven’t found yet

just for you

my roommate

my muse

© 2008 Lee Kitzis