These were thoughts or things I observed over the span of 24 hours.

My body is a temple,
I am told. My followers
are few and sorely lacking.

I was told that music
is universal. It makes sense.
I don't understand most of the lyrics.

I have been told stories
that I have told to the teller.
They insert their names
where mine was.
This is called
experience.

Today, I purchased a
new pen. The pen's package
stated that the pen writes
like a dream. They neglected
to tell me I would have
to bang it on a table before
the dream could be realized.

Children playing in the mud,
smacking each other with
their toys, screaming out
obscenities and love.
Their parents bellow at them
for achieving what they can
only do with a bottle of
Johnny Walker.

Purple shoes suffocate tired
feet as their owner screams
at the clerk for putting
her thumb on the scale
to weigh "that f***in' onion."

A woman looks into the
assembly of all her counseling
bills. The high school gym is clean
and she had her teeth capped,
learned how to stick it into a guy
and cut off a piece of his empathy.
She's gonna be alright.

A pretty woman stares
at an ugly man, assuming
that the ugly man is staring
at her. The ugly man has
just mistaken this for interest.

Politicians sell lots that are not
theirs, to build community centers
that will not be built, for favors that
will not be honored, for promises
of more in the future.

A drunken man is bragging
to me about how he used to
beat his kids
and his inability to do his
own laundry.
He smells like ass and is
always here alone.

Teachers never ask you
to do a 10 page report on
your favorite cartoon character.
That's a shame.

It's raining and
a homeless woman
is yelling at a cop,
telling
him to get a grown up
job.

A local drunk emphatically states that he had received
straight A's when he was in
high school. He had been
discharged last evening
for relieving himself in an ash tray.