exhausting the exhausted exhaustives

4 adults in a room
discussing something or other
they’ve just met or they’ve known each other for years
either way they have nothing to talk about
one is a lawyer
one is a doctor
one is an analyst
one is a stockbroker
babbling away about the food
talking about their kids as if they were the ingredients on the side of a
cereal box
the need to keep money in order to
“stay afloat”
masks the fact that they were born into it &
the accumulation of things
keeps them together
because the hassle of divorce
just doesn’t seem very plausible
given their schedules---
none of them have slept with any of them for years &
they’d be hard pressed to remember each other’s birthday
much less their favorite colors,
but they are stable
all of them---
from the outside they appear like good little worker ants
pulling pieces of foodstuff from parts distant &
bringing them daily through the tunnels to the queen
voting in every local & national election
going to church on sundays
playing golf on weekends
and using the word “summer”
as a verb,
in this conversation
which none of them will be able to recollect a single word of
the minute that it stops.