it happens when you’re driving

before dawn

on I-95 – north of Miami

on a morning in late summer

when the night heat

lingers

like an old drunk

who won’t leave the bar

at closing time

and you think that

if you were on an all night bender

maybe things wouldn’t look so bad

but when you’re blasting south

a full cup of black coffee

from your local coffee mill

perfectly balanced

in the cup holder

of your  ’99 Subaru

and you hear

that the Palmetto Expressway is closed

(overturned cement truck)

and the construction

that was supposed to be

finished LAST YEAR,

is still

backing shit up

to West Palm Beach

…well then…

your job shuffling papers

at Corporate

does not seem so appealing

and you begin to think

that maybe you should have

gone to law school or

gotten a degree in Pharmacology

like your Uncle Willis

who came back from ‘Nam

back in sixty eight

and went to UCLA

and then married

a drop-dead-gorgeous

chiropractor

from a wealthy Chicago family

and raised three beautiful

children in Toluca Lake

and retired early

to a gated community

in Cabo San Lucas

where he now raises purebred

Chihuahuas with his third wife

Evelyn and hasn’t a goddamned

regret in the world.

The lucky bastard.

So you drain the last drop from

your 16 oz brain rocket

courtesy of the BottomlezzPot

and you think to yourself

…that…

if there were justice in the world

you could take back

the past ten years

of your life.