Pile

Sand conforms to the bottom
of a bottle and the paint they’ve
let run over every surface of the pool
is making everything uncertain somehow
colorful.

Gas station shelves half stocked because
the workers are revolting over window time
and the ability to finally cut in line,
to take the last of what is left
among the pile.

The six packs are really five or less because
the pressure can’t be kept up where it should be.
You can still cut up the plastic that connects
them but it will not make any difference
like we pretend it does when
we throw it all away.

Everyone says that this is how it always was
With drive through lines that break out
past the parking lot and clothing sales
that people plan their weeks around.
I do not want to be found
but abandoned so I cannot bother
anyone who would ask me
to be one of them, or some of them,
I guess that makes me selfish,
but it’s safer.