Hey Mike: A Day in the Life
A poem about attention being constantly pulled from one thing to another. Perhaps you can relate.
Article voiceover
My new poem’s text is below. Hope you like it!
The audio version is available above. You can also check out this and other recorded poetry at my Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/speriosu
Hey Mike
I wake with the wailing of my baby
I pull an oddly shaped body up
Then snooze while he nurses
Clamor quietly for slippers
Get the dishes out up and away
Check error logs and emails
Red circles count obligations
Yawning
A total of six nipples in the dishwasher
Lower back complains; press myself against
The counter and hope for a pop
The microwave's silent End, emblazoned
The machine of forgetting
Thoughts do their pummeling
Eight hundred millisecond delay, then palpitate
Entre pensamientos
Vivimos
He chews the Bluetooth speaker
As Parts spins and reverberates
Diaper change, severe ear pain
Feed him eggs just above room temp
Then she's up, first word is No
I am disappointment just now
Obsess over artistic singularity
Dress her, bless her heart, drive her not far
Alexis and Derek in the car
She's up too, coffee and planning
Gets him down amongst full spectrum
Hushing
Emails from Github, doubled
Hey Mike, can you—
I clean, I set to spin, I fold
An anxious garbage collector
Phone buzzes, a DM
Hey Mike, whenever you get a chance—
Six hours from now, I take her to dance
But for now, shattered sparseness
Inhabit the house, all of it
Zenhub, tasks, checklists, tests
Meet with externals, quickly draining
Standup, huddle
Edit reports, review her
Code
He's up, he's screaming
Headphones or intervening
Hey Mike, can you—
Check Reddit
Blocked on /etc/hosts; that was me
File ticket, assign to me
It's Wednesday
No poetry
For five days
Mike I need—
Yogurt, peanuts
Distraction, kind of
Bathroom, flush
Kitchen, garage, leash, harness
Walk, block, sun, sweat
By Friday she'd like to submit
Give estimates, edit it
Verse by Rux in my head
Oh Miguel—
Dance as promised, ask for Zoom link
Get back, open door, aromatic garlic
Hey Mike can you grab—
Dinner, breakneck pace
Screaming while I clean his face
She presses our bodies, exhausted
Start the bath water
Clean their bodies
I asked you to stop
Close eyes, moment's peace
Dry them off, fight over timer
He wails again, then she takes him
I want mama
Mama read book
Pass them around, get them down
Back to the kitchen, grab a top shelf tenner
Briefly guilty, hit the couch
Throw something on
Dolphin screensaver
Hey babe, what snack we havin
Heave the old cuerpo up again
Throw some kernels in the pan
Salt em and nosh, then she goes to bed
Walk the pooch, podcast on
Abiogenesis, brush teeth and then
Hit the sack and do it all over again
OMG, this totally captures Life's craziness. Might as well make a poem about it, right? It's a conundrum: you've gotta live life, stuff to do, obligations (both necessary and unnecessary), and yet, you want to ponder, you want to write a poem. This was a great combination of both. That took a lot to get all that down!
Reading this makes me feel exhaustef!