Undertow

The damaged drain backs the water up
so the sink spills over its coppery edge
and starts to flood the whole apartment
like a tidal wave from inside solid walls.
The cat jumps from table, to counter,
to desk chair, and foot stool to avoid
the creeping water line that cries up
all the walls like in a fish tank.
The book case was now
completely saturated and the ink
bled off the pages making everything
much darker than it should be.
The radio, left on for the pets, is still
playing classic rock music
through the muffled undertow
of the destruction, and the construction
noises outside, where a crew of workers
barely did there jobs, just wouldn’t stop.
The tenet returns with his daughter
he picked up from school,
and on the second floor walkway
the wave that came crashing when
they opened the door sent them
over the railing to fall toward the stone
of the parking lot. As they were falling
all she could think about
was how she wanted to bite
the dorsal fin of a shark
so they would learn
just what it felt like to be chewed on,
and with her braces she was sure that it
would hurt.