Everyday Poem #0

Looking for solace I can’t name

I sit on my deck watching the person who will be my new neighbor

in a year or three when he finishes his monstrosity of a house

two hundred yards from my fence

And six times the total square footage

Nailgun fascia to his eaves

The pressurized schtck schtck schtck

Echoing between bursts of cheap-ass fireworks

The hillbillies with the monster trucks lining the cul-de-sac two streets over

Have set off every night since mid-June

I’m all for independence, but seriously.

I give up on peace and go inside to rummage through my freezer

A half-finished brownie batter blizzard with ripped lid asks for release.

I have not had sugar in 24 days

And ice cream for at least twice that

So it’s impossible to know how long he’s waited.

Frustration makes the spoon sink deeper into the

murky brown-chunked frozen melted refrozen remelted

tundra than one would think.

If frostbite had a flavor, this would be it.