i just needed
five minutes
to stop running
to stop being chased
a soft chair
a cup of coffee
free internet

the basic necessities
as promised
by the constitution

most likely

as i collapse
on the chair
waiting for the bean slinger
to milk
those browned berries
for maximum
caffeinated returns
i notice
the slack jaws of
the plastic looking people
around me

this clearly
isn’t my scene
the automatons can sense
an intruder
in the hive mind of
politically correct
disingenuous prattle
carefully
omitting triggers
from the
milquetoast introspection
of the burgeoning
cafe snap crowd
forming
around me

the suits
enter the front door
with fedoras
pulled low
as if that would allow
the stench of
oiled weapons
to intermingle
in the turgid wasteland of
honest dishonesty

i need a cigarette
an alibi
two fifths of
amber something
to drown out the voices
robotically
drawing unwanted attention
to my
beaten countenance

i judge the door
is eight steps
farther
than i can make it
before
they unleash tasers
or tear gas
or pepper spray
or some new
biological agent
that slides syphilis
directly into
the endorphin receptors
of happy fun
make believe

the barrista
short brunette pretty
if vapidly
mouthing the words
to the
bubblegum bullshit
bouncing it’s way
across
my tenderized neurons
loudly
calls my name
as my order
is up
as my time
is up

with a
half-hearted bellow
i flip the table
in front of me
over
causing the
syntethic humanoids
to scatter from the
streaming array of
half frozen atrocities
or overly sugared insults
to the heart and souls
of the farmers
hiding cocoa leaves
in the harvest
under the relentless
colombian sun

the tiny sting of
ten or twelve metal barbs
as they stab
my chest
is the only warning
before the world
becomes a spasming whore
beneath
my piss soaked
legs

my teeth
clench
as the rictus of
too many thousand
volts
course the synaptical
misgivings of an otherwise
shit day