resumé

dishwasher
floor waxer
baker

stocked shelves with groceries, only to later stuff them into processed trees
or recycled synthetics;
packed them into cars of able-bodied, flirtatious women and men

waited tables—became the flippant flirt

scrubbed
packed
cooked

bought into corporate codes at video stores
convinced customers, and rented out movies
ordered, received, repaired, rewound, sold, shelved, and stole them

approached by a pyramid network scheme—reconsidered

fried donuts
boiled bagels
roasted coffee

at a hole in the wall: sliced meats, cheese,
served them up on sour, wheat, and rye
took smoke breaks in the storage shed,
surrounded by buckets of pickles and jalapeños
traded hoagies for herb with rasta john, rag-head pete,
and all the troubadours

stifled within walls—tried freelance labor

framed
painted
shingled

chased balloons for hot heads from napa to healdsburg and back
tied the proper knots, hefted sand bags,
smiled at too many tourists,
drank their left over wines

scraped by with minimum—made five times that, threw it away

raked
shoveled
jackhammered

diverted traffic on 80 in the nevadan high desert
plastered polymers all over bridges,
manipulated molten oil and rock
shortest day, twelve; longest, twenty-one

didn’t always need a bed—
just fixed on those white lines near the edge of the road

Ben Arnold