Close up coin magic

‘How is your day going’

He said to everyone that came to pay for

Anything

Even the girl ahead of me

Paying for two boxes

Of different sized tampons

No bother that she

Didn’t want to converse

Over her 24 sanitary products

He still asked

Then it was my turn

A pack of gum

‘How is your day going’

I had to answer

You have to answer

But I gave the generic back

Fine/thanks

Behind him sat a dog eared paperback

Close up coin magic

Might have been his

Or belonged to one of the others that

Worked in there

There were many

Doesn’t matter

At least it showed one of them

Still gave a shit about living a real life

And exploring things

Outside the grinding politeness

Of asking assholes like me how we’re doing

All

Day

Long.

You cannot trust the incorruptible

The men of steel

Of iron will

Those who are known to be

Rock solid

You know one

Or many

They are close to you

Pillars of the community

Or the go-to guy at the job

And they cannot be trusted

The incorruptible man

Is too sure of himself

In the way scientists are sure that

They have it all right

That there is no big guy up there

Looking down at us from his cloud

Who knows

Maybe there is

Always maintain a sliver of doubt to

Leave yourself open to any possibility

To expect the unexpected

The incorruptible man has

Years before made his bed

Locked into his highway

And built brick walls on either side

To avoid any possible diversion

While the rest of us

The best of us

Are riding a unicycle along the beach

Sharks on one side

The open road on the other

And

Following the sound of the circus.