another night strapped to the bulk-line
machine-roar of millipeding conveyors
shiny cylinders spewing gouts of nutrients
hissing-thrusting pistons sealing revolving jars
stammer of flame-sprayed forklifts
beat of galvanized steel drums
friction sparks
stutter-stutter shimmy-shimmy roll-top aluminum doors
my ears THROB ACHE BLEED
want to go home

skull faces with bursting guts roll a game of bones
chewing on wet cigar stumps
eyes emptydark crevices
“let me play”
“newmeat, fuck off”
“i’m one of you”
“you’re alive”
cold creep glares at me with a knife in his teeth
world rushes molten beneath my feet
i feel like a naked lunch quivering at the end of a fork

i slam my locker
slide over the sweating tiles
brush past the swaying carcass with the dangling eyes
eat the armpit stench like onions
choke on the red-starred night
i click into the horizon-long chain
file into the neon-lighted brickhouse
“hello, oblivion”
“what’s your devil?”
“give me the usual”

the bulk-line’s bitch again
the whore fucks me rotten
i don’t see so good today
flesh tore away in my hands
i love my job
have nothing but praise for The Master
whey-faced ian plucks the kneebone out of dying ramos
i laugh at the torment
cut out both their spines
“kid,” the supervisor bleeds, “you’re going to go far”