Chad Parenteau

Work-Through-Lunch Poem

O'Hara never had bad dreams

of days like this.

Sustenance substituted

for vending machine run,

not enough time to hold

a haiku with your candy bar.

Another day, another dead lady

trending on Twitter,

sad emojis beating

your best words-per-minute.

Crying kidneys bring you

to the bathroom break

as you sound out the only poem

your colleagues may ever hear.

Chad Parenteau is the author of Patron Emeritus, released in 2013 by FootHills Publishing. His work has appeared in Tell-Tale Inklings, What Rough Beast, The Skinny Poetry Journal, Ibbetson Street and Wilderness House Literary Review. He serves as Associate Editor of the online journal Oddball Magazine. His second full-length collection, The Collapsed Bookshelf, is forthcoming.