a woman a tire thats flat a disease a desire fears in front of you fears that hold so still you can study them like pieces on a chessboard its not the large things that send a man to the madhouse death hes ready for or murder incest robbery fire flood no its the continuing series of small tragedies that send a man to the madhouse not the death of his love but a shoelace that snaps with no time left the dread of life is that swarm of trivialities that can kill quicker than cancer and which are always there license plates or taxes or expired drivers license or hiring or firing doing it or having it done to you or roaches or flies or a broken hook on a screen or out of gas or too much gas the sinks stopped up the landlords drunk the president doesnt care and the governors crazy light switch broken mattress like a porcupine 105 for a tune up carburetor and fuel pump at sears roebuck and the phone bills up and the markets down and the toilet chain is broken and the light has burned out the hall light the front light the back light the inner light its darker than hell and twice as expensive then theres always crabs and ingrown toenails and people who insist theyre your friends theres always that and worse leaky faucet christ and christmas blue salami 9 day rains 50 cent avocados and purple liverwurst or making it as a waitress at norms on the split shift or as an emptier of bedpans or as a carwash or a busboy or a stealer of old ladys purses leaving them screaming on the sidewalks with broken arms at the age of 80 suddenly 2 red lights in your rear view mirror and blood in your underwear toothache and 979 for a bridge 300 for a gold tooth and china and russia and america and long hair and short hair and no hair and beards and no faces and plenty of zigzag but no pot except maybe one to piss in and the other one around your gut with each broken shoelace out of one hundred broken shoelaces one man one woman one thing enters a madhouse so be careful when you bend over 