A Harmless Obsession Poem by Donal Mahoney

The nice thing about crossword puzzles
as an obsession, Phil tells Bill, is they
keep you away from other obsessions
that might engage your attention and
benefit no one. For example

Phil was molested by Mark as a child,
he tells Bill, and Mark's still alive
and Phil could go find him but that
would be a mess at best

and Steve took Phil's parking spot
at work and is probably still parking
in that same spot even though Phil
retired years ago

and the old shrink who said Phil
was a borderline psychotic
still has a practice close by
and might be worth seeing again
to revisit that diagnosis

but as Phil tells Bill every week
it's better to work crossword puzzles
than to look for these people unless
he can't finish a puzzle and
these tasks require his attention.