After Dinner Clean-Up
Post-drinking
peeling wax from tablecloth
slight music – Bela Fleck,
nothing to sing along with,
the obsessive-compulsive personality peels
for a full hour,
along the edges,
along the grain of the music,
recounting night’s conversation:
debates, regrets,
fights you shouldn’t have gotten into;
edges keep peeling:
think of onions
one river on top of another —
In a minute I’ll be asleep.