another poem written on the clock by Karl Koweski

fifty bad parts,
the hole bored
.020 too small

and now
I’m on the hot seat

between writing
smut stories all shift
and breezing through
the latest
Palahniuk novel
I’ve somehow neglected
to zero out
my calipers

and management wants
to know why
I couldn’t take
the two seconds
to double check

I don’t believe in zero
I tell them, simply

what do you mean,
you don’t believe in zero?

it don’t exist
the Romans got along fine
for hundreds of years
without using
a single zero

the Romans…?

let me tell you something
know where zero comes from?
the Arabs…
and ever since 9/11
I don’t have any use
for anything
the Muslims have to offer
so now
I’m all about
the Xs, Is and Vs, baby

management considers this
torn between
patriotism
and common sense

all right,
the quality assurance
manager speaks
I can understand that.
I got a nephew
in Iraq right now
fighting those towelheads
but you got exactly
five seconds
to come up with
a suitable replacement

I’ve got any number
of zero synonyms
beginning with my life
and ending with this job

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Black-Listed Magazine is an online literary magazine. We publish on a rolling basis: weekly, daily, sometimes hourly. Send submissions here: blacklistedmagazine@hotmail.com

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