It was a long-standing routine.
She gave rapid-fire directions
about how to do everything.
Big or small.
   
He complained over and over.
Stop already
I'm not a child.
I know, I know, I know, she said.

She laughed but she didn't stop.
Though it was silly
she just couldn't help it.
It was a part of her being.

One day he wondered
what would happen
if she lost her voice,
Like in laryngitis

Maybe she would
scribble rapid-fire notes on
reams of paper, spewing forth.
Directions fluttering through the air like confetti. 

Maybe she would
become telepathic and
transmit high frequency streams of directions.
Radio waves penetrating his brain. 

But what would happen
.if she couldn't speak
.if she couldn't write
.if she couldn't be telepathic? 

All those directions being relentlessly generated.
Piling up inside with
nowhere to go.
Building up a great pressure. 

Maybe she would swell up
like an expanding balloon.
Growing ever larger and rising into the air
as children shouted look, look up there.           

And go pop in the sky like a giant gum bubble.
Pandora's Box flung open
with eight zillion directions raining down.
People flailing and crashing in a chaos of obedience.

He realized protective measures were needed.
Some kind of insurance to safeguard
the population of the earth from the risk
of drowning in a Noah-flood of directions. 

Being an inventive person he knew what would work.
He would have her fitted
with a pressure relief valve.
Just like a water heater. 

She saw that this was a good idea,
so she told him
where to buy it
and how to install it.

By Joe Glaser

Joe Glaser was a successful business technocrat who, upon retirement, morphed into a perpetual student of the liberal arts and sciences. No one was more surprised than he. A perceptive observer of human nature from many angles, Joe has discovered the power of poetry for sharing insights, emotions and humor. He also pursues candid travel photography and enjoys finding natural vignettes that display the human condition in interesting ways. He says it beats the hell out of working. His e-mail address: Joe Glaser