Swing Shift Blues

A poem by Alan Dugan

What is better than leaving a bar

in the middle of the afternoon

besides staying in it or not

having gone into it in the first place

because you had a decent woman to be with?

The air smells particularly fresh

after the stale beer and piss smells.

You can stare up at the whole sky:

it’s blue and white and does not

stare back at you like the bar mirror,

and there’s Whats-‘is-name coming out

right behind you saying, “I don’t

believe it, I don’t believe it: there

he is, staring up at the fucking sky

with his mouth open. Don’t

you realize, you stupid son of a bitch,

that it is a quarter to four

and we have to clock in in

fifteen minutes to go to work?”

So we go to work and do no work

and can even breathe in the Bull’s face

because he’s been into the other bar

that we don’t go to when he’s there.

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Poems in English 

• Considering The Snail by Thom Gunn by Poetry In English
• Broken Love by Talha Jafri by Poetry In English
• Black Market Love by Taisha Destin by Poetry In English
• Attention please! Attention please! by Roald Dahl by Poetry In English
• An Act of Faith by Talha Jafri by Poetry In English
• After Years by Ted Kooser by Poetry In English
• Abd el-Hadi Fights a Superpower by Taha Muhammad Ali by Poetry In English
• A Ghost in the Shell by Talha Jafri by Poetry In English
• 10 Things I Do Every Day by Ted Berrigan by Poetry In English
• Zermatt To The Matterhorn. by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• A Woman’s Fancy by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• The Woman In The Rye by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• A Week by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• The Year’s Awakening by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• The Workbox by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• The Wistful Lady by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• The Puzzled Game-Birds by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• A Spot by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• A Sign-Seeker by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• “The Curtains Now Are Drawn” by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy

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