exhausting the exhausted exhaustives

4 adults in a room

discussing something or other

they’ve just met or they’ve known each other for years

either way they have nothing to talk about

one is a lawyer

one is a doctor

one is an analyst

one is a stockbroker

babbling away about the food

talking about their kids as if they were the ingredients on the side of a

cereal box

the need to keep money in order to

“stay afloat”

masks the fact that they were born into it &

the accumulation of things

keeps them together

because the hassle of divorce

just doesn’t seem very plausible

given their schedules---

none of them have slept with any of them for years &

they’d be hard pressed to remember each other’s birthday

much less their favorite colors,

but they are stable

all of them---

from the outside they appear like good little worker ants

pulling pieces of foodstuff from parts distant &

bringing them daily through the tunnels to the queen

voting in every local & national election

going to church on sundays

playing golf on weekends

and using the word “summer”

as a verb,

in this conversation

which none of them will be able to recollect a single word of

the minute that it stops.