Busy men doing important
work:
Flying private into Minneapolis
LAX, checking into
Four Seasons Laguna,
CNN on HDTV, the
toilet flushing;
A few – very few,
actually – die suddenly
Of coronary
infarction on the double beds
But far greater numbers furtively masturbate
To glowing screens,
then watch basketball
Until dinner. Busy
men? Important work?
“So it seems to
them!” the cynic mocks —
But if I indulge facile
Sinclair Lewis-style
Animadversions
toward executive sales types
Must I not then
too inquire: “Eschewing
The rat race is well
and good, but what great
Poems hath the
unraced rat written or will write?
And btw, what hot
girls is he fucking? Is he busy?
Important work?” Ha, I’m laughing! O God!
— Mitch Sisskind