A Triptych Titled “Happy Hour”

Let's workshop this bitch!

A Triptych Titled “Happy Hour”

The left panel would feature a janitor
hunched and sullen with an aura 
stark against a Rembrandt backdrop—
someone uneasy about being noticed,
mopping with his back to the viewer 
forty-five degrees or so to the right
(highlighting the side of the face more
expressive of anger and disgust while 
shielding the side of the face more
expressive of empathetic emotions).

The right panel would be a still-life.
And yet instead of that stock cat paw
reaching for a piece of meat or cheese, 
a double-hammer fist, veiny and hairy,
would be barreling down at a plate,
paper, of blue-collar hors d'oeuvres: 
Colby-Jack cubes and bag pepperoni; 
a hunk of port-wine cheese spread 
swirled with yellow and orange;
round crackers; pigs in a blanket.

The center panel, double each wing,
would be a zoom out from the plate
at a moment shortly before or after, 
featuring a wall hole the size of a fist
and a man rage-kicking a dining chair
before a woman and a child huddled
on a stained sofa (a janitor one-piece 
hanging over the very chair he kicks
and the child’s hand gripping a knife 
hidden between the sofa cushions).

*This poem is unpublished

Painting: “The Drunk,” by George Bellows (1923-1924)