I hope that there’s a baggage claim
at the end of all of this.
Some grand processing system
to sort through all the things we brought.

Hopefully it is an improved system.
Hopefully it only returns the things
that are worth a damn.

I fear we are not so lucky,
and that the processing was, well,
you know,
sort of our responsibility.

But if there is a baggage claim,
whatever the modifications,
I’m taking someone else’s bags
and hoping that they packed
a little better

i don’t know if i mentioned about the time when in sixth grade i excused myself from mr. stage’s classroom and proceeded across the thinly carpeted windowless hallway to the mens toilet. where i peed. in the urinal. while staring off into something like space i managed to find in the divider between stalls.

then as if in slow motion my hand moved to towards the flusher and as i pulled, the ‘american standard’ pulled itself
away from the wall.

now i remember quite vividly the feeling of shock and horror i felt as i pulled my first urinal clear off its piping and watched as water gushed from the pipes behind it. i also remember the feeling of excitement i felt as i opened the door back into my classroom and returned to “social studies” which apparently is just a word for “history” and doesn’t address even basic sociology.

the next day when i returned to school i found the urinal safely fastened to wall as if it were all a dream.

then my shock and horror turned to pride. i pulled a urinal off the wall. i am awesome.