Listening To Conversations At The Gym While I Worry About My Athletes Foot Poem by Oscar Mireles

My athletes foot fungus
grows between my last two toes
and Ididn’t notice it
until I worked out yesterday

hitting the sauna first
for 15 minutes, then
30 minutes on the hand driven bicycle
watching the end of Oprah
and the beginning of the news

which celebrated 50 years on the air this week
back to the sauna
where I take off my shirt,
shoes and spend some time getting a full sweat

and listen to two guys
talk about life
where one of them happens to be
picking up trash on a later afternoon walk

and since it was early spring
notice some trash 50 ft. from the road
and stumbles upon a Meth lab

and he knew the ingredients
Sudafed, ether, some other chemical
So he gathered everything up
and was about to walk home
When he realized he could get in trouble
So he called his friends
to let them know what he was doing

He called the Sheriff
and when the Sheriff asked him
if his name was spelled correctly
he asked about the boating ticket
and if he knew his daughter had a speed ticket
and how did he know so much about Meth

and he said he was a doctor
and it made things a little clearer

and the two guys in the whirlpool
were talking about investments
well one of the guys was not actually talking
but either trying to get a tip on a stock
or trying to sell some stocks
and he explained that someone he knew
who knew what he was talking about
said to invest in Canadian companies
because of the weak dollar
and the other guy finally said
“it seems like a good idea
but was it before the rally on the stock market last week?

And the two women at the counter
Were talking about the
Braces that were plastered on their co-workers mouth
But I did not listen for long

And I am amazed what people
Tell other people
Without regard
knowing other people
are listening
to their conversations

Even though I think it is a sin…
other people
can listen
without
telling
anyone