The cruise ship's wait staff have grown impatient
discussing alchemy on their breaks
thumbing through seed catalogs well into their shift.
A motivational speaker deconstructs Kidder's House
remaindered, and left shivering on the street corner.
I file a missing person's report.
It makes for enjoyable reading
and many passengers retire to their hammocks
with an autographed copy.
The mid-afternoon lemonade flows freely among the lap dancers
who are fit to be tied over the latest pay cut.
Many resolve to stop shaving their legs.
Unheard of. Hearing this
several customers forego the complimentary pedicure
and instead place gloomy bets at the pony track
where morning workouts raise dust for after-school projects.
Of course there is little else to do. Meanwhile
foreclosures echo the patter of mice in the walls
their plight the subject of a recent docudrama
aired during pledge week on public television.
Students will soon purge classrooms, witless utterances,
pop quizzes and dirty laundry
their iPads and laptops on autopilot.
At the end of the shift many wait staff confide
that they are considering a career change as evictors
hoping to get in and out
without so much as a wrinkled brow.
Someone points out that there is much down time
as well as a certain amount of risk.
This seems to turn the tide, and many look anxiously toward land.
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