Coconut Nose

At work we manufacture telephone cord

Coaxial cable, surgical tubing

Hot Wheels track and penile implants

Melting and extruding high tech polymers

We stand for none hours operating machines that proclaim:

WARNING!  YOU ARE STANDING IN THE VENTING AREA

OF A PRESSURE RELIFE DEVICE

YOU ARE IN A ZONE OF POTENTIAL DANGER

YOU MAY BE INJURED BY ESCAPING PRESSURE

NOISE OR FRAGMENTING PARTICLES

Hal, a co-worker has a grossly deformed and

Disproportionate nose

It’s huge, swollen, lopsided, red and purple

It’s pocked, bumpily deeply stitched and scarred

“There’s skin grafted from his ASS on that nose” Jerry laughs

“He’s got his ASS on his FACE!”

“That man is disgusting,” Mary whispers

“I’d rather hump a drunken biker”

“I hate that guy” hacks Mike,

“he doesn’t have long hair, he doesn’t like rock and roll

Or smoke pot! He wears SAFETY GLASSES everywhere he goes

He’s a dork!  I can’t look him in the face without laughing”

I remain silent

They don’t know I’m not one of them, either

And in my own way just as ugly as Hal

I hate them all

“You’re a cruel son of a bitch” I tell Jerry

“The world is SHIT because of people like you”

And he thinks I’m kidding

Reaching into a black lunchbox

Jerry holds up half a coconut to his face

Puts on a pair of safety glasses

It is a gross and efficient caricature of Hal

And despite my best efforts I laugh out loud

We all laugh except Hal who keeps working at his machine

Dangerously increasing the pressure

Planning psychic murder and mayhem on all forms of cancer

Including us