You're still coming to work aren't you

I remember 
the first time 
I missed a day 
of work 
my mother 
had 
just died 
and I had to go home 
that was it 
hit the homeage 
for a day 
then right back to work 

in this job 
you don't have time 
to mourn 
you put your aggression 
into your cooking 
and you don't even feel 
the heat of the kitchen 
not till service is done 
and you walk outside 
to have a smoke 
and the night air 
hits you 

man that is a good feeling 
you take the rest of your anger 
out on cleaning 
then it is off 
to the bar 
something and possibly 
someone 
to numb the pain 

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

this reminds me of my many many years at the restaurant...on bad days, emotionally...it almost worked as a buffer to the bad thoughts...i threw myself into the motions of cooking the pies...
but in the end...walking outside...it would hit me...and it was hard to go back inside...
all of a sudden it just wasn't enough of an escape.
j.

[terry smith]

There is a whole lifetime of thinking in those quick smokes that's why most of the time I liked to take them alone.

[John the Baptist]

The last verse is the key to the poem. The speaker has hidden the grief temporarily by busyness. The pain is not totally forgotten, however. It will express itself somehow, someway, sooner or later. Really liked the terse, spare, low key delivery; made the message all the more powerful.

[terry smith]

The pain is not forgotten for sure it is just the overwhelming need to be in the now inside of the kitchen that helps keep your insanity and it is truly insanity