4 cassette cabinets
Stacked up on the floor
Two racks of CDs
A stack of LPs
I've heard them all
Over and over
Over and over
Age 24, working in Hell
Remembering King's words
Of soft hands and hard work
My hands are soft and grimy
Feet swollen and blistered
I go through two pairs of work gloves a day
In the printing plant
The temperature ranges from 60 to 120
Concrete floor
12-15 hour shifts with two 20-minute breaks
Working machines, stacking pallets
Choking on exhaust
Running on fumes
Dehydrated
My girlfriend works at a day camp
Playing with kids
Pampered
We're on a break, I think
I don't know
We were on one for one day
She made out with our friend
No nudity
Lots of groping
She came back to me
I'm still pissed
Twelve hours a day
I think of murder
Every hour I'm at work
Stacking
Binding
Sweating
I think of killing him
Butchering him
Blinding him
Taking my time
Leaving no trace of myself
Getting away with it
But she would know
As a Catholic
I fear Hell
Though I already work there
And murder
However deserved
Is a sin
So I work
And sing all the songs
From all the CDs, LPs, and tapes
I've heard so many times
Singing "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia"
Track by track
Humming the solos and instrumentals
"Abbey Road" and "Sgt. Pepper"
"It's Hard" and "Who's Next"
"Selling England by the Pound"
"Invisible Touch"
Over and over
Over and over
Calculating hours remaining by single and double albums
Filling the time
Numbing my mind
So I can survive 12 hours in Hell
And not damn myself forever
About the Creator
Gene Lass
Gene Lass is a professional writer, writing and editing numerous books of non-fiction, poetry, and fiction. Several have been Top 100 Amazon Best Sellers. His short story, “Fence Sitter” was nominated for Best of the Net 2020.
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Winner's Circle: Prompted #3
INTRODUCTION Prompted: #3 is over and done with. There were a total of 7 entries for this challenge, just like with Prompted #2. That was a bit surprising, considering this was a poetry challenge. The first poetry challenge garnered much more attention. Of course, one way to look at the drop in participation is that Vocal writers are not fans of the rondel.
By Randy Baker6 days ago in Writers
Comments (2)
Ahh, music. I love it when palms come all collected like that. It’s a gift
Music gets us through a lot. I'm excited to finally have a job where I can turn my music on.