Q&A

there are so many different colors of pathetic
like the pasty skin of the man who spends all his time inside
reading about the world on his computer, fetching water for his
daughter, so much money sitting in
a bank account, could pay a kid’s college tuition
could travel india with his wife for weeks on end
no, just sits there smelling ancient and wrong.
pathetic is the fourteen-year-old-girl who thinks
her stomach problems make her romantic,
meanwhile the daughter of some family friend
is busy starving herself in the corner of a hospital reserved
for lost causes
pathetic is the asian playwright whose
mother thought he was a waste of space, whose
first show debuted last night
and he planned for a Q&A session, picked out the white
shirt and blue tie that made him seem in control.
nobody showed up.