Banal
A Poem
It’s weird to wish that the world was more
well, boring, right now
So lacking in originality as to be obvious
would be a welcome distraction
from this litter box of detritus
that is free-flowing into the rivers of our hope
With a virus readying itself for a new round
and police brutality all around,
this hellscape of a modern world
is anything but banal
The axis is pulsating with discordant anger
confrontations filled with contorted danger
and here I sit, out of expletives,
wishing it was all a cliché
I want to just go run some errands and then
sit at a coffee shop and listen to a conversation
about how Janine is so mad because, um, well,
Bobby called her J-nine and she doesn’t know
what this could possibly mean and now,
Janine and Betsy are betwixt confusion and laughter
and there I sit, listening to the banality of life
But no, instead I have to be peppered with white fragility
while the “Presidential” decision-making is killing me
I have to inadvertently look at what’s trending
only to see another arm or back or neck bending
Spittle-fueled screen rage encapsulates my bubble
as I long for a world of resplendent boredom
Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up tomorrow
to a world lush with banality
where the worst thing that could happen
would be another office meeting
with pie charts and bar graphs
all about the stocking of pens and paper?
Give me that, not this
Not this dump truck of sand
burying me from head to toe
but still putting headphones on my ears
so I can listen to the cries for justice
fall deaf on crumpled ears
hiding from the truth and the history
Give me trite and vapid,
a stereotype of a stereotype,
conventional and ordinary,
a cone of vanilla ice cream,
a bowl of spaghetti
Don’t give me this smorgasbord,
this diaspora of race and culture
Don’t give me a composted world
Just give me
Banal
