Night Shift

I am with heavy heart
And a bag
Packed with items of survival
Cigarettes, diet coke, a book
(pages of which I will never turn)

Envy burns like acid behind my eyes
I absorb the image of evening
HIM (with legs outstretched)
and a fridge bulging with alcoholic promise
bed waiting like an old lover
in the room next door

I leave a bitter tasting kiss on HIS cheek
the clock forever ticking

Through hateful streets I seethe
incensed by blatant visions of freedom
swarms of people scuttle like insects
into the pubs
I long to mangle their blissful existence
under the heavy foot of my hostility

I blink into the night
bearing witness to the many hours I've endured before
and must do so now
minutes stretch like elastic
as taut as my nerves

On aching legs I stumble towards 4am
eyes void of moisture
wrist watch, a leaden weight
pulling my arms down

But look!
morning arrives, a silver prize!
and the insects of night scuttle underground
How I laugh at their fate
till next nightshift at least