PAD Day 12

I've been struggling the last couple of days to combine the Poetic Asides and NaPoWriMo prompts to create one poem, but the good news is sometimes I get two poems out of that struggle.  The first one today does combine the two: (1) from Poetic Asides: write a "broken" poem - one about something broken or breaking, and from NaPoWriMo: (2) write a poem consisting entirely of things you'd like to say, but never would, to a friend, lover, parent, child, teacher, boss, sibling, etc.  The first poem combines both prompts, more or less, and the second is in response to just the first prompt.

Napoleon

You stride up and down the aisles

like a town crier on Doomsday,

barking orders impossible to follow.

Your e-mails are all in capitals,

with more exclamation points

than anyone deserves to use.

You bully and condescend,

threaten and belittle, and then try

to be friendly, with that rictus-smile

and some lame term of endearment.

And by the way, I don't want to hear

any more about your freaking cats.

You cannonball, you gnome, don't you know

this place is broken, or are you too busy

playing little dictator to notice?

Breaking Things that Glue Can't Fix

Records, dawn, routine and news,

bread and waves, the law, taboos.

Resolve and fasts, sound barrier,

codes and rank and character.

Promises, engagements, hearts,

training, silence, wind (that's farts).

Amish, Bad, and Benjamin,

up and down and out and in.