Mom said

"Do we need anything else?"

and I thought I needed something to scrub my sink and bathtub

I asked her if she had any S.O.S. pads

She said "Check under the sink"

and I found the bright blue and yellow box

I thought…

Somebody's job depends on the success of these S.O.S. pads

And it's probably some guy who works in the offices of Clorox

He's the main guy in charge of the promotion and sales
of S.O.S. pads

I can see him on the phone in his cubicle:

"Yeah Bob, it's a real good product, stands for 'save our saucepans'
sells real well. Goes back to the 50's, one of our many fine products."

And I imagined that in the
back of his mind
this man was unhappy.

That he felt that he was wasting his time,
devoting it to selling these little balls of steel wool
full of coagulated, blue bleach

That he was trapped

And that more than once
he had entertained the notion,

in the quiet of his office space
there in the Clorox headquarters,

of taking his own life.

And just for a moment I felt a pang of despair
shoot through me, like I could feel him there
across the anonymous miles

S.O.S.

S.O.S.

S.O.S.

Then,
we went for pizza.

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