bump. what the heck..... one of my favorite poems to take your minds off of relationships... for a moment at least
“Work Song”
by Mark Levine
My name is Henri. Listen. It’s morning. I pull my head from my scissors, I pull the light bulb from my mouth–Boss comes at me while I’m still blinking. Pastes the pink slip on my collarbone. It’s OK, I say, I was a lazy worker, and I stole. I wipe my feet on his skullcap on the way out.
I am Henri, mouth full of soda crackers. I live in Toulouse, which is a piece of cardboard. Summers, the Mayor paints it blue, we fish in it. Winters we skate on it. Children are always drowning or falling through the cracks. Parents are distraught but get over it. It’s easy to replace a child. Like my parents’ child, Henri.
I stuff my hands in my shoes and crawl through the snow on all fours. Animals fear me. I smell so good. I have two sets of footprints, I confuse the police. When I reach the highway I unzip my head.
I am a zipper. A paper cut. I fed myself so many times through the shredder I am confetti, I am a ticker-tape parade, I am an astronaut waving from my convertible at Henri.
Henri from Toulouse, is that you? Why the unhappy face? I should shoot you for spoiling my parade. Come on, man, put yourself together! You want so much to die that you don’t want to die.
My name is Henri. I am Toulouse. I am scraps of bleached parchment, I am a standing militia, a quill, the Red Cross, I am a feather in my cap, the Hebrew Testament, I am the World Court. An electric fan blows beneath my black robe. I am dignity itself.
I am an ice machine. I am an alp. I stuff myself in the refrigerator wrapped in newsprint. With salt in my heart I stay good for days.
