The Sound of Water in Sewers

.


He sits in a sweat-stained undershirt
in the living room, after another day
punching holes into steel.
A beer, blue TV light
splattering on the walls.
The only other light
falls from the kitchen
onto the back of his wife,
her hair pressed by pins to her scalp,
as she carries two plates
and sets them on the tray between them.
They eat slowly, faces
going slack, looking at nothing
in particular.

.