wheel of emotions

it seems so straightforward—
a wheel of color
simple descriptions
happy
angry
sad
frustrated
anxious.

but for me it is sticky and oozing and sloppy
bleeding out of the borders
making all of the colors run and meld together
yellow isn’t happy, blue isn’t sad
instead everything swirls together in shades of brown and muddy green and grey
leaks out of the laminated seams
into puddles that seep into the floor.

the clock on the wall ticks
cleaving seconds off of the billable hour
and all i can think about is
how annoying it’ll be for the janitor to shampoo that out of the carpet

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