Robert M. Simmons  

from Morning in Middleborough... (Poems 1991-2006)

Spencer the Spitter

       (or Great Expectorations)

Each morning

on his way to the convenience store

for a newspaper and a package of Marlboroughs

in his champagne colored Buick LeSabre

Spencer would stop at the busy corner

where I happened to live

roll down his car window

and let fly

a humongous wad of greenish-yellow phlegm

mixed with saliva

regardless of who might be near

to view this gross bodily function.

On a given day

the audience might include

a cluster of  children

waiting for the school bus,

a housewife weeding her flower beds

or a retiree

taking his morning constitutional.

Over the years

at one time or another

most of the surrounding community

had been strategically positioned

at the critical moment

to observe this revolting conduct.

Having had enough of it

one by one

I asked my neighbors

if they had witnessed Spencer's vile eruptions

so that I could finally share my disgust

at his public behavior

and perhaps bring some social pressure

to bear on the miscreant,

and one by one

each politely claimed to be unaware

of this daily event

which had been going on for years.

I began to doubt my senses

until the next time it occurred

while a neighbor was walking his Shiitsu

and had to do a quick step

to avoid being splattered

by a particularly large projectile,

when I realized

that people do not see

what they do not want to see,

and thus the spitting continued.

                    © 2006 by Robert M. Simmons

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Subjects: spitting, anti-social behavior, Middleboro MA, public apathy, poetry, poems