One of Those Days ( Poetry )

It was just one of those days,
All I wanted to do after waking up
was return back to bed;
I wanted to disconnect
the answering machine,
take the phone off the hook;
then sigh in relief...
It was just one of those days.

Though daylight peeked through
the closed blinds
and bird chirped conversationally
outside my window,
I trudged across the naked floor
to the bathroom,
flipped the light switch up, lit a cigarette
and engaged the toilet.

Afterwards, it was a cup of coffee,
a wheat muffin - another cigarette;
then a return to the bathroom to wash my face,
brush my teeth. Yeah,
It was just one of those days.

Atlas Shrugged

With the help of John Henry and Paul Bunyan,
A collective coalition of multi-tiered people:
black, white, brown, red and yellow people;
employed, unemployed, rich, poor people,
professional, unprofessional, retired people,
young, old, able, disabled people,
homeless, destitute, disenfranchised people,
Hindu, Jew, Muslim, Christian
Buddhist, atheist and agnostic,
gay and straight people
from red, blue and gray states,
with and without their significant others,
fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers,
democrat, independent, libertarian
progressive, conservative, republican,
old-time and first-time voters,
decided by the score not to take it any more.
Cho-cho, all aboard
People arrived in chartered buses,
limos, bikes, motorcycles, cabs and trains
to line streets of polling places:
school auditoriums and gymnasiums
convention halls and churches -
to roll the world towards Obama's shoulders -
the focused destination.

And when the word came forth from
Media Olympus that victory was assured,
Tears of joy, relief and happiness
streamed from teary eyes down creased cheeks,
mixed into oceans and baptismal rain,
flooded waterholes and dried-up creeks.
Together, tirelessly, throngs of humanity,
ushered out insanity, cronyism and banality;
made a declaration, addressed a national catastrophe,
and with coordinated effort accompanied by
exert grunts punctuated with heave-ho,
pulled, dragged, pushed and rolled
the world - inch by inch, foot by foot, yard by yard
towards the waiting shoulders.

As he squatted, back-arched, crouched, wrenching
beneath the burdensome, unyielding load
shoved upon his massive shoulders -
swayed back and forth,
a balanced act on a tightrope suspended in midair,
Teetered. Positioned the globe -
knees, like bamboo shoots, straightened - and
Atlas shrugged as wars
raged in the deserts of Iraq;
in the mountains of Afghanistan,
along the borders of Pakistan,
turmoil in Iran, genocide in Sudan,
children soldiers in the Congo
bombs exploded in Hindustan -
Ishmael versus Israel -
a world in an economic meltdown, tail-spin,
bailouts, buyouts, layoffs -
Skepticism, pessimism, optimism,
people reviving a bygone romanticism,
prey to mass hypnotism,
darkness removing Light pollution,
a push from Bush to Cush to end stagnation,
reclaim the promise of a mighty nation,

Obama shrugged.