Routine
By Craig Kirchner
There is a routine, it starts with getting out of bed
and squirting the sleep from my eyes with Refresh.
I won’t bore you with the bore of the rest,
you have your own to remember.
There have been interruptions to it over the years
that usually involve an infirmity or natural disaster.
I used to play golf twice a month, practice during the week,
now arthritis in my knees makes it too hard to turn.
We had the strongest storm to ever form in the Gulf
relocate sleeping to the closet, away from the windows.
But never in 75 years has the government altered my life,
it always held up its part of the bargain. I paid taxes
and voted. It kept the roads open and the food safe,
never interfered with my daily regimen.
I tried to list once all the jobs I’ve had, when I got
to three dozen I gave up, knowing I missed some.
My wife has only had a few but other than time off
to have our two boys, worked all her life. Together
we paid social security for about 100 years into a fund
that is supposedly worth close to three trillion dollars.
The current administration is destroying
the infrastructure to seize control of this fund.
We retired to Jacksonville not for the Florida sun or
the book banning, but to be near our granddaughters.
When the grift is accomplished and the checks stop,
we will sell the condo for the equity to be able to eat.
The streets of Jacksonville house a populace of homeless
some well-read, great conversation, all creative.
I have stopped, given a few dollars, had a few words
I may soon be asking them for advice on my new routine.
Craig Kirchner is retired and living in Jacksonville, because that’s where his granddaughters are. He loves the aesthetics of writing, has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels and has been nominated three times for Pushcart. He was recently published in Chiron Review, Main Street Rag, The Wise Owl, Breathe, The Wilderness House and dozens of others. He houses 500 books in his office and about 400 poems on a laptop, these words help keep him straight.