Two Poems About Work

These two poems come from my days of work at Michigan State University. They were originally published at Silent Things an online literary journal.

The Pita Pit
Fluorescence ebbs into the night
void with a new moon.
Neon ‘Open’ wades into
darkness, swims
to the bob of streetlight shadows.
Silence crashes into
bzzing light bulbs
iPod static hss
A squawk from the griddle
as lunch meat remnants take flight
towards the cooler
droning on
and on.
Sitting upon a cabinet top,
*Slouching Towards Nirvana*,
A car Dopplers past
dragging phone and doorbell’s absence
to street.
People pay for this.

Toxicated
7 AM is last call at Denny’s.
The smoking section dissipates.
Downing the last of sixteen coffee cups,
shuffling the remnants
of fifty four sugar packets,
thirty two creamers,
incantations
to no
sleep
the world is twenty six hours
tinged.
Twenty two Marlboro Smooth cigarette butts
form a constellation
of promised addiction
weeping
Ink,
the Dream of a Common Language
bringing words to paper,
in pursuit
of the one
true
lie.
Crumbs line a greased plate,
six onion rings, four mozzarella sticks, three chicken tenders,
food to get by until the 10 A.M.
post class
cup of coffee.
As the sun fills yellow stained windows,
my body rises,
finds its keys,
attempts to drive
into the self
and learn
something,
anything.