Short Order Artist

I grab a ticket:

hat rack for a retail store

I have pipes and fittings

weld, measure, cut, install.

Next ticket:

bar legs for a distillery

back to the scrap metal piles

weld, polish, thread, fit, install.

Ticket up:

coat rack for a baby on the way

framing hammer, casters for hooks

drill, buff, weld, sand, cut, grind, ship.

New ticket:

hooks for towels by the hot tub

hunt my piles, find the right pieces

polish, drill, lag bolt, done.

I fall into bed sore and exhausted

knowing that more tickets await

grateful for the work.

***Imagine my delight to come home from vacation to find this in my pile of mail. For some reason my voice resonates with these folks, and I am grateful for their acceptance. Not sure if it is my many years on the end of a broom, or my time on the welder, or my growing up in shitty little factory towns that finds such a fit with this publication. For some reason, they like my poems and publish them. The cover image above is called Grocery Workers, and was done by Carolyn Olson.