How long have things gone on and gone by?
Half a mug of water sits on my desk at the office,
It means morning is half lost, at least,
Pretty soon I’ll be greeting with “good afternoon,”
And then “good evening” before leaving for the train
But there’s a full mug of water back home
On another desk, one rarely used for work or pleasure,
What does that show? An evening has passed
But a morning has yet to come,
With sunlight to unwrap me from my bedsheets?
And in addition, there are the two coffee cups
Crumpled up in the nearby trash,
Each waxy one took me an hour to sip and finish,
But when? Were they the last first thing I drank,
Or did they go down with, or after my lunch break?
Ben Nardolilli is a scrivener and a theoretical MFA candidate at Long Island University. His work has appeared in Perigee Magazine, Door Is a Jar, The Delmarva Review, Red Fez, The Oklahoma Review, Quail Bell Magazine, and Slab. Follow his publishing journey at mirrorsponge.blogspot.com.