sea of joy

with yr cunt on my mouth
my tongue's between
the wings of two hummingbirds
who are furious. they become fresh, raw
pork-chops touched by trembling lips.

the planet earth is meat & wet stone.

blood & vistas of heat-warped columns of
oxygen.

plus we're wrapped within a deep
layer of black jelly.

we spill upon what we recognize
as surface, all the while hearing

songs
songs from teenage years. jellied,
where we walk we slip.

& slippages are powered
by day-trippers sucking tofu in a whole
new century -- dot com motherfuckers.

not only money.

not only guilt & guiltlessness.

blind faith. song in my mind,

for years,

decades. with yr cunt on my mouth
in dark evening bed & the blind
faith cd on loud.

---

taking tonight off work

thinking how i intentionally
let the image of delbert leaving
the shop burn in my mind,

never again to see delbert
except possibly in the obituaries,
remembering that final, strong handshake.

my last image of judy
this morning being
the side of her face in her

little red car leaving
the factory parkinglot
forever. then i imagine

the rest of the shift,
a few of us with 20 years
to go before such a thing like

retirement,
& all the fucking
ignorant amerikan factory-rat kids:

those without history
& pain &
meditation,

& the cons,
the union
liars -- they stay --

it's like a
concentration camp
& the good, the true,

the honest,
the ethical prisoners,
for the most part

are the first
slaughtered --
who remains, who endures

are those
who say
yes yes yes

when the
gun-barrel is
kissing their asshole.

what a disappointing
array of
hanger-on employees --

nobody is left
to cheer
for --

not hillbilly,
not that old
country-suspender fuck

with a mouth
spitting
snuff-juice

no more heroes
exist
in the near future

just old losers
& young, brash
retards.

men
& women
have lived whole lives

in the jobs
these shits
desecrate with idiocy.

---

judy

i'm half-dazed walking big strides
from the time-clock to the back door
with judy to my right waddling
on bad knees wearing her bright, yellow hat
with black words TAKE THIS JOB
& SHOVE IT! jackie gave her,

& i realize never again will i
walk with judy inside this ugly, stupid factory.
retirement -- judy at 62 looks 82.
we're the first ones out the door,
she opens it before i can open it for her.

it's daylight late march.
at the end of the sidewalk i whisper
her name, reach to touch her hand,
& we suddenly kiss there
as i whisper bye.

---

judy retires

tonight at three o'
clock in the morning
a caterer is coming to the lunchroom
with the fruit-flies & mice.

judy's last night of work
is next thursday, but they're
having the one hour lunch-break
a week early, for some reason. most

of the guys like the idea
of a one-hour lunch-break
& can't even vaguely appreciate
the glory of judy -- twenty-one years

in this bleak fiberglass factory
where the assholes on the floor
rule by conspiracy & baseness
& the assholes smile. the bosses

love the assholes.
the bosses & the assholes
have easier jobs than judy
can even imagine -- she's sweated

& her entire delapidated body
has been broken out in red splotches
so she lives like that,
suffers with the old, sore knees.

i think of things the assholes
have spouted all these years about
judy -- these assholes who make up
the houses on the streets,

the farms,
trailers,
these assholes with new suv's
with a big bank-roll savings

these assholes
who cushion themselves with the
baseness of the union,
who then create the union.

judy has been one of the lowest
paid workers in the plant --
an injection operator,
dinosaur injection machines...

the assholes drive jitney
the assholes have 2 hour cure-times
& spend free time fucking with
us sitting ducks -- i'm a press operator,

i'm like judy.
it's what judy does
but won't do
anymore -- after her body

has been
ravaged by age & industrial
management & union
games...the assholes

are everybody but us
parts operators
i say it
loud & nobody wants to listen

but tonight
at 3 in the morning
i'll sit with
judy but not for long,

i'll walk out of there
by myself
& meditate upon
real life.