Indoor Swimming Pool Smell

everything was a pile

of shit

when I was a kid

if something

went wrong

it stayed in place

as in: washing

machine on the fritz?

here we come laundromat

grass needs

cut?

don't worry about it

weeds turn

into

lullabies after a while

big palm

trees

of pretend

and not even that

just

what it is: weeds, weeds, a bottle of vodka in the weeds

the house wasn't anything to start

with: 2-bedroom

yellow-brick ranch

the size

of a TV

dinner

and everything

turning

to shit, 1979

the kitchen sink

stopped up?

let it go

until the plumbing

consists of

a tupperware bowl

under the sink

catching

all the slime from washing dishes

and trash?

don't pay for pickup

put the bags of it in a

little white

shed

at the back of the carport

until

the smell

gags you as you wait for the school bus

or maybe

burn the trash in the backyard

like pioneers

a dirt-circle

filled with

blackened pringles cans

and

melted bread bags,

poisonous cinders in October air

the electric gets shut off

too

bad checks bounce the fuck off the walls

you run out of gas

you take

something really old back to the store

but

then one day he comes in

with wonderful news

some buddy of his

gives him

a month-long pass

to the sheraton inn

his wife manages

the indoor pool

near the interstate

brand new motel

and we go

me my dad and mom

and sister

escaping end-times

maybe 2 months

before the sheriff

kicks us out

and there is this

intoxicating

smell

chlorine

heat

fogged-up windows

people

without any troubles

and then sometimes

no people

just us

not wanting to go home