This writing was accepted for publicationin the 84 page perfect-bound issue... cc&d magazine (v207) (the April 2010 Issue)  This is also available from our printer as a a $7.47 paperback book (5.5" x 8.5") perfect-bound w/ b&w pages 
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Order this writing in the Charlie Newman May 2010 cc&d poetry collection book “Deckard Kinder/ Charlie Newman” |
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Order this writing in the book (bound) cc&d poetry edition |
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order the 5.5" x 8.5" ISSN# book order the 8.5" x 11" ISBN# book |
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Order this writing in the 2010 poetry collection book |
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click on the book cover for an author & poem listing, order the 5.5" x 8.5" ISSN# book order the 6" x 9" ISBN# book |
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jobbed
Charlie Newman
I get on the bus and close my eyes.
“I can’t cut it,” I think.
“I’m just not doing it.”
Whatever “it” is.
The workday goes on. And on. And on.
I might as well be mopping floors in a gilded tourist spa in Greece,
or washing dishes in a greasy spoon in Toad Suck Ferry, Arkansas.
Small advances. Holding place. Unrecognized retreats.
Hours slip into lifetimes.
Delays pile up like unanswered invitations.
Cigarette breaks follow one another ad infinitum
silhouetted against stained granite
as far as the eye can see.
A good-for-nothing lifetime
of good-for-nothing years
of good-for-nothing months
of good-for-nothing weeks
of good-for-nothing days
of good-for-nothing hours
of good-for-nothing minutes
of good-for-nothing seconds
of good-for-nothing work.
Opportunity? What opportunity?
Look up to where the work is done behind desks and under tables.
If you’re there,
among the tidy,
generating digital paperwork no one will read
except for your initials on the bottom
success and failure fall into place behind cul de sac smiles.
“All honest work is noble,” goes the cliché.
But should we be grateful for every indignity
suffered in the name of earning?
Yes,
there is meat on my plate.
I just don’t have the teeth to chew it.
