Fresno

there ain’t nothing out of place in this city which is fresno working the greyhound graveyard janitor shift my Italian boss says you forgot to sweep the platform I say I didn’t forget it but you’re right I didn’t do it he says just so we don’t get on the wrong foot you’re already I think on the wrong foot but I don’t put it in my mouth in spite of his bureaucratic mentality there ain’t nothing I say out out of my head in this place in this city there’s a hotel manager who calls himself the maid at my door to bring me clean towels let’s see he says tomorrow uh is tuesday so with exact attention I have to the words he tells me we do your room tomorrow sheets and everything in place but he so much more so than me who stands there charmed having forgotten who I am but not so at work I hate that Italian who has to ask me if I’m the new janitor but then treats me like one among the others who couldn’t decide to do what they damn well please about the filth on his floor the filth he says doesn’t belong where it is while I don’t wonder how it got there from the same hands that feed him and so my hands will take it away for him who feeds me there ain’t nothing out of place in this dump and me too feeling low down and into the trash cans making room for more while a grasshopper walks abroad in the lobby of the depot because this is an agricultural city and it’ll be over 90 in the fields

2 July 1974