underground parking garage
tonight i descended
exhausted and rushed
to fetch my car
from the bowels of an overpriced
underground parking garage
in manhattan
and while i was waiting in
the cavernous echo
i watched two people
get into a fight.
two cars entered the concrete womb
and screeched to halts
and a woman got out of one car
with a baby in a carrier
and a man in a baseball cap
got out of the other.
and in the muddled hurricane of
their screeching
i pieced together their story.
their cars had nearly collided
and the woman had said
something
to the man
that he had misunderstood
that had led to him
telling her to fuck herself
and her telling him
to go fuck himself
and before long
they realized
that he had misunderstood
the very first thing
she had said
that had led to this whole conflagration.
but it didn’t help that
he had misunderstood her.
they didn’t care.
they were too angry at this point
and within two minutes of
this shouting match beginning
he was shouting
lady
you need to just calm the fuck down
just so you know
i just lost my father
and she said
yeah well i am sorry to hear that
but i won’t calm down
i’ve got a baby here
and thank christ you didn’t kill her
you fucking madman
and god i missed new york
but i didn’t miss this
in new zealand
with everyone being all
quiet and suppressed
and murmury polite
and
she’ll be right
mate
she’ll be right
and the man
who’d just lost his dad
gave
as his red faced finale
to the raging lady with the baby
saying
i’m the calm one here
lady
i’m the calm one
you’re losing your shit
and i am the one being calm
and i squeezed my eyes shut
and i cried and laughed inside
and as i drove away
i saw him on the sidewalk
mr calm
who’d screamed
go fuck yourself
and i rolled the window down
and i said
hey i’m
real sorry
you just lost your dad
and he looked at me
with his baseball cap
and his sad sad tired eyes
and i said
my dad’s been sick
and
i have a little kid
and i understand you both
and
i think everybody is
truly
on the brink
of
losing it
right now
and he looked at me
and blinked back tears
and he said
thank you,
lady
thank you