poemoftheweekfeb9

by Ellen Moynihan

(March 7th, 2005)

I got fired
from my dogwalking job last week.
Fired because I was sick,
and refused to get out of bed
and go to work anyway.

Fired because I’d always had
an attitude, because I refused
to be on call for last-minute walks,
and probably also because one of the dogs
used to wait until I finished walking it to crap on the floor of the apartment after I left.

I thought about how cold it was outside,
and how I would never have to walk dogs in twenty degree weather again,
or while it rained, or snowed, and I was glad.

Later that day, I walked around
downtown with a friend,
both of us all dressed up
and smoking cigarettes,
She said: Do any of these people work?
Look at them all. It’s like they eat lunch for a living.
And I said: Maybe they’re all unemployed, like we are.
We look fancy, too.

ZYGOTE IN MY COFFEE. COM

Home

Submit

Glamour