Work Week
Benjamin Niespodziany
__________
[1] Monday Mood
I panicked
in my company’s five-flavored
cola elevator. Later,
much later,
I was fine.
[2] Tuesday Blues
I caught fire
at my cubicle.
You used a ruler
to make it stop.
[3] Wednesday Raise
They gave me
more money. A new
number. Clean mug.
I hugged my desk.
I cracked
a smile.
[4] Thursday Worry
A granite anvil
landed on my work
computer. It was my
lucky day, corporate
said. It was not
normal, I was told.
[5] Friday Finally
Now I’m old.
Decrepit yet
tepid yet
not yet
dead.
__________
Benjamin Niespodziany is a Chicago-based writer whose work has appeared in Booth, Puerto del Sol, Sixth Finch, Bennington Review, Indiana Review, Conduit, and others. His debut poetry collection was released in 2022 through Okay Donkey, and his novella of connected stage plays is out now with X-R-A-Y.
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Posted in Workplace Wounds and Woes and tagged in #boudin, #poetry