Wrist Deep

Fitter, happier, more productive,
comfortable, not drinking too much,
regular exercise at the gym
(3 days a week), getting on better
with your associate employee contemporaries,
at ease, eating well (no more microwave dinners
and saturated fats), a patient better driver,
a safer car (baby smiling in back seat),
sleeping well (no bad dreams), no paranoia,
careful to all animals (never washing spiders
down the plughole), keep in contact
with old friends (enjoy a drink now and then),
will frequently check credit
at (moral) bank (hole in the wall),
favors for favors, fond but not in love,
charity standing orders, on Sundays
ring road supermarket (no killing moths
or putting boiling water on the ants),
car wash (also on Sundays), no longer afraid
of the dark or midday shadows,
nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate,
nothing so childish - at a better pace,
slower and more calculated,
no chance of escape, now self-employed,
concerned (but powerless), an empowered
and informed member of society
(pragmatism not idealism), will not cry
in public, less chance of illness, tires that grip
in the wet (shot of baby strapped in back seat),
a good memory, still cries at a good film,
still kisses with saliva, no longer empty
and frantic like a cat tied to a stick,
that's driven into frozen winter shit
(the ability to laugh at weakness),
calm, fitter, healthier and more productive
a pig in a cage on antibiotics.