Toilet vs. An Uncertain Future

Something's Gotta Give. Or Maybe Not.

My neighbor’s toilet

is upended at the mouth

of his driveway.

He thinks the town will pick it up as bulk trash,

but I’ve read the rules, and

they won’t.

I will be looking at this toilet into my dotage,

porcelain cracked, misted by mold,

drunken dung-sailor given the old heave-ho.

I like my neighbor, but as I said,

I’ve read the rules. No plumbing fixtures.

Toilets are included under that definition.

I looked it up.

I would say something to him directly, but

we don’t have that kind of relationship. What we have is

I tell you, and the toilet festers.

I imagine vermin making a home in its filthy cavity,

or the Health Department issuing a citation;

I can live with either.

That’s the kind of neighbor I am:

eyes on, hands off.