have gravy, tenderloin and flair jeans
vinyl case for cigarette pack with
a loop and snap top for the lighter
four to midnight get a break time
with a magazine or paper; maybe
you wrote a letter to the editor
a room with mechanical machines
a room with towering reel-to-reel
tape drives behind formica, buttons
green and red and yellow blinking
reset beepers with timers, and your
whole arm could hold 13 or so reels
this weight on the arms of a ballet
trainee, 13 on each arm, the wrists
having fit through the holes perfectly
the lead operator had a racket going
slapping reset buttons, barking at
us to reset the beeping buttons so it
would look like we were attending
to the reels much more quickly than
we were or possibly could have done
planning to spend the rest of the
night dancing in a club, sweating,
drinking, dancing, cabbing home.
by Hoolie