I

When the time came
Like it always does
Came, that is, with respectability
Abhorrence or latitude
It just came
Just like that.

There had been highlights
Like on tues. after mon. night football
Or lights high on a branch
Outside someone's house on Xmas.

There it was.

Our vast inner circle
Could perhaps circle
Around it
We could all have worried faces
And faceless expressions
Or we could comply with someone's
Rigorous ethical standards.

The implication was quite clear
When the time came
Like your earrings
Hardly painted onward toward lunch
Or your lips without make-up.

That this time was up, too
When he tried to cash in
Like a check waiting inside a drawer
About a job he had not yet left.

There it was.

II

What was really troubling
Like wash that never seems to get done
Was less theoretical than real

Conflict of interest
And self-promotion
Were mentioned
So we can't be content
Without the contention
That surpasses knowledge.

This didn't.

Of course when you woke I watched
And when you watched I woke
Like the consciousness of something unconscious
Without the rouge or lipstick:

That dirt is problematic:
Be it in your hair
Or implicit in a chest-thumping subtitle
Like being in perpetual communion
With muses or hackers.

Everyone
And I do mean everything
Got the message and stepped down
Out of my life and times
And except for the stunning drop
Of my pants
Everything
And i do mean everyone
Hardly registered.