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Loose cannon

Today I referred to myself as a loose cannon to Esteve. Tonight I recalled describing a former boss that way in an email (company name obscured with xxxxx). Here it is:

i thought
hey, hold on
where the hell is quality control?
and i knew i was it
but still it’s so tiring to try to stop her
and almost impossible to make her listen
and understand
and my energy for that is limited
plus it’s just amusing to watch her rocketing along
read this, read this, read this
passing you papers printed at semi-random
from the web

  
to me
the phrase ‘loose cannon’
can be perfectly applied to her
she’s rolling around on the xxxxx deck
(wheel in deep sea fishing analogy here)
our most powerful weapon
at once capable of taking out a whole fleet of enemy ships
but also equally capable of shooting down the mast
blasting the crew
taking out the sail
firing on the powder room
and just generally causing any number
of unpredictable and inevitably high-impact results

 i know
we have to be the leather belts
that strap her to the deck
as much fun as it is to see her rolling about,
the recoil from one explosion
spinning her randomly to point at her next target
all further confused by the rolling waves
and her small metal wheels

 confused and terrified sailors
in blue-striped togs
run scrambling over the sea-slapped decks
holding their heads their ears
the ship’s wheel
half shot away by a stray ball
spins wildly
as we broach another peak

  
all hands on deck!


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