It’s
the same job
every day
that kills you.
He’d been at the foundry
since ’53,
now a hunchback
high on the union list.
I covered for him
while he went to Virginia Beach.
His only child was in ROTC.
He said
he just went to Vietnam.
I didn’t say anything.
I would have been scared
to be a soldier
but I could do this job
for Henry Ford.
For a week or two,
the lies
I told myself
would keep me going,
and the repetition would be lyrical
until I broke,
like anyone,
when he came back alone.
John Stupp is the author of the 2007 chapbook The Blue Pacific and the 2015 full-length collection Advice from the Bed of a Friend both by Main Street Rag. His new book Pawleys Island will be published in 2017 by Finishing Line Press. He lives near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
A Quiet Courage 