stone gray start surface.
fingers guide a lump of coal
pulsing with a red germ.
work, work, work,
scroll until the screen achieves a steady boil,
until you hear a buzz,
buzz, buzz,
static swarms the smutty surface.
sterilize by boiling,
erase by burning coal,
erase, erase, work-
don’t catch or spread the lazy germ!
hand sanitizer: 99/100 germs
slip away from a steady buzz
of keyboards, printing, working.
7th floor: neither abyss nor surface,
far above the concrete and coal,
close enough to the sun to boil.
break room water boils,
coffee machine brews gossipy germs.
lunch break to meet Cole,
then return to the buzz
of surface, printing, surface,
work, drink, work.
Metro cuts off work,
second hands roar, armpits boil,
warm surfaces
so gritty and grimy that posters warn of germs
more fatal than the buzz
of electric trains.
heels marked with soot and coal,
cold air vanishes, hot breath working,
escalator’s ragged buzz
lifts us up toward home, to boil
water for rice, to be covered in puppy-tongue germs,
puddles of pee on every surface,
break free to cicada buzz and the almost-boil
of green tea. I'll see Cole again tomorrow, when I don’t have to work.
Gossip, slip, germs, superficial, taught me to dive and break the surface