Work Week Benjamin Niespodziany __________ [1] Monday Mood I panickedin my company’s five-flavoredcola elevator. Later,much later,I was fine. [2] Tuesday Blues I caught fireat my cubicle.You used a rulerto make it stop. [3] Wednesday Raise They gave memore money. A newnumber. Clean mug.I hugged my desk.I crackeda smile. [4] Thursday…

Wrong Song Devon Neal __________ For a moment the copper-feathered robin the exact size as my two palms, with its midnight-storm eye and a beakful of tattered acorn, stopped on the concrete sill of the fourth-floor office window expecting to find an underdressed princess, mid-song, looking for help with tidying…

My Brief Life as a Dean Jennifer Lagier __________ Night One: a man beats his child in the parking lot. I phone the police, an ambulance, child protective services, our security guards. Night Two: across the street, gang-bangers shoot a man as he stands on his lawn. I phone the…

The Building Manager Lora Keller __________ When their Schwinns and Toyotas slink out the drive, I haunt their burrows.  I thaw her sibilance with a comma splash and one tangled ampersand. His easel creaks as I dab fuschia, his sunset now inferno. I thread golden floss and scatter a spray…

Why Hawks Make Bad Bosses Jean Janicke __________ Circling on thermals  dark suits and auburn feathers soar above pay grades. Their shadows darken cubicles.  A high-pitched descending keeeeer freezes fingers over keyboards. They leave one small wing  on the floor near the printer, prey partly eaten. __________ Jean Janicke spends…

From the Back of the Room Mary Buchinger __________ Faculty Meeting No. 11 It’s the Dolphin standing on his tail waving his flippers. “Assessment” says this pet—“This is our task for this year!” Oh the ball of unreality, how it lights on his nose, and rises like an example. The…