the leak

your plumber
comes over to fix
your toilet.
it's running again,
leaking and refilling.
every other year
the thing fails.
he shakes his
head and laughs.
it's the chinese
he says, they make
all this stuff now.
he carries in his
tools and gets
to work, twenty
minutes later,
he washes his hands
and gives you a bill
for five hundred
and twenty dollars.
you write the check
and watch as he
drives away in
his mercedes van.