Super stickys

A good friend of mine

joined the military

because he wanted to kill someone

and I told him I was scared for him

and he said I shouldn’t be

and I said fine but you don’t have to

go through all those hoops

just to end a life

and he said but I wouldn’t get paid any other way

and I said yeah yeah but what about design

and he said what about it

and I said like creative work, making advertisements and stuff

and he said never thought about it

and I said you have the spirit in you

and he said yeah

and I said yeah

and so he quit the military

and got a job making advertisements for candy cigarettes

though he was smart and innovative and refreshing

and called the product super stickys

with the slogan

sticks and stones can break your bones

but stickies can make rocks cool

and kids everywhere put them in their mouths

and waited until the ends turned red

from some chemical reaction

involving starch and iodine

and then he killed himself two years later

in a comfortable apartment with lots

of nice things

that hadn’t been dusted

in a while.

*

Racing alone

along an empty street

that is filled with people

on another day

I wonder

where are they

where am I

as I pass street lights

that turn me into a sundial

because they miss the warmth

and my shadow starts

from behind

then races ahead

then behind

then ahead

as I move on and on

my head coming from behind

in a cycle of

night and day as decided

by urban planners

and my shade shows

what has come

and what will be

like a business man

on a lonely Friday night

changing his necktie

for another

which doesn’t make much of a poem

but it didn’t make much of a life

either.