wasting time is one of the most valuable things

you can do to rebel,

so sometimes that just means i’ll spend three hours

eating one thing of red jell-o,

because i don’t know how else to express my dissatisfaction

just because there’s dirty dishes in my sink overnight

doesn’t mean i haven’t figured out my life out yet,

but that isn’t to suggest i have,

i was just hoping that you might lend me some slack

for a moment

while i go through the motions of figuring out what’s this all about

cosmic brooms sweep across the sky

cleaning up dirty stains in the carpet made by no one taking off their shoes

as they track whatever

all across the universe

gathering stardust from afar,

celestial debris from one galaxy to the next,

not a single conscious entity seems to be conscientious enough

to take out their own damn

trash

rather than making a mess of what isn’t theirs

Fred Aiken Writing