Eating Lunch in Your Car

Eating lunch in your car

on the side of a residential street-

what a curious thing.

you inevitably feel guilty about idling for too long

So you turn the car off

and when it’s raining you hear the

tap, tap, thump

of raindrops.

 

The thumping being the larger raindrop

clinging to the pine tree overhead

having amassed enough droplets

it drops; Thump.

Right onto the hood of the car.

And you discern the difference

and you imagine the amassing

and you even reimagine the dropping

Now the moment has passed you by.

 

If you sit there long enough

with the engine off,

after you’ve finished your lunch,

you start to get paranoid.

About the residents,

who may or may not be home,

the dog walkers,

and mail retrievers,

looking in

discriminatingly so.

But is it really they who are discriminating,

or are you discriminating your own self?

Can you even do that, is that a thing?

 

Well, apparently it is, cause here you are doing it.

The windows are fogging up

and it’s time to get back to work.