Furnace Coat

on the forty-second floor
the comptroller
sits with
a blowtorch
melting windows &
invitations to
the office party

on his desk
a memo from the boss:

my life is
a single burning
ice cube
dropped into punch

splashes my little yard of space-time

ashes
over my asbestos body

I have lungs like
desert islands
on one of them
a guy in an inner tube
praying to be saved

on the other
another guy in an inner tube
praying to the first

don’t ask
which is which

on the soundtrack
I am singing

here
let me light
your birthday candles
I have matches

oh look!
here’s my life
their little cover says,
“YOU TOO CAN GO TO COLLEGE”
but of course I can’t
because
I just went

I was an ant farm
a pickle trainer
a philosophy of clowning auditor

my résumé
a maraschino cherry that
fits on my nose
is covered by ants

breathe
the instructors say
sit in class and
breathe

smoke fills the room
I am here
I think

I will have a life
close to the floor

—GARY BARWIN

(Originally published, Christmas, 2006.)