How to Battle an Army of Elmo Strollers

Carol eats sandwiches in her office

occasionally she’ll poke her head out
and tell me I’m doing a bad job tearing tickets

She plays solitaire on her computer

Thousand Island dressing dribbling down her chin

and she’s right

I am bad at my job

I’m writing this poem

when I should be tearing tickets

and I’m gonna steal her pickle

when she leaves the room

© 2009 Lee Kitzis

Life

The wine bottles on my porch

were all good years

and now

they're good ashtrays

© 2009 Lee Kitzis

Nine to Five

Belly full of ravioli
and a cigarette out back
before the hammer comes down

Taxed to death
awake in a dust-filled room

insomniacs and bus drivers
with holes in their shoes

Stealing hours like bread

while WASPs with gumball machine teeth
pump seed into corpse-skinned ex-debutantes

your wallet hammered to a cross

somewhere in North Carolina

© 2009 Lee Kitzis