anonymous
bernice
likes to catch me working the desk
oh, you’re here! she says
she sounds so excited
but i never feel very good about it
bernice looks like one of those kind old ladies
she wears a plastic head scarf
in inclement weather
and she has that grandmotherly way
knowing and doting at the same time
she also likes to call the people i work with
idiots and fools and morons
bernice is nice to me because i’m the new one here
i haven’t let her down
my failures are still anonymous to her
not like such and such
who just walked by
oh, that fool, bernice says with a knowing eye roll
not like so and so over at the branch on 13th avenue
what a jackass, bernice tells me
while i’m looking down her list
of hallmark hall of fame movies
or finding her more items on helen keller
some generic tome
by another charlatan who’s crossed over
bernice is a god fearing woman
not like that heathen desk jockeying it
over on 21st street
she didn’t even know that st. luke
wrote one of the gospels
how do these people get jobs here?
bernice asks me
there are thousands of people out there
who could do it better
like you she says, smiling
after i find her a couple of lifetime originals
personally, the pressure
is getting to be too much for me
when bernice comes in
i think i’m going to sabotage
this whole thing we have going
fail to find her books or movies
insult helen keller
tell her that heaven isn’t for real
stop being the superstar in her eyes
let her go somewhere else
and find the next big thing
so i can go back to being like such and such
so and so
you know who
that one over there
faceless like the rest of them
in a long line of fleshy blurs
who eventually let this world
and poor poor bernice
down
by simply being human.
No comments:
Post a Comment