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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• November by William Cullen Bryant by William Cullen Bryant
• Mutation by William Cullen Bryant by William Cullen Bryant
• Love and Folly by William Cullen Bryant by William Cullen Bryant
• June by William Cullen Bryant by William Cullen Bryant
• Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood by William Cullen Bryant by William Cullen Bryant
• William Cullen Bryant – William Cullen Bryant by William Cullen Bryant
• Hymn To Death by William Cullen Bryant by William Cullen Bryant
• Hymn of the City by William Cullen Bryant by William Cullen Bryant
• Consumption by William Cullen Bryant by William Cullen Bryant
• After a Tempest by William Cullen Bryant by William Cullen Bryant
• A Song of Pitcairn’s Island by William Cullen Bryant by William Cullen Bryant
• A Forest Hymn by William Cullen Bryant by William Cullen Bryant
• William Henry Davies by Fledermaus
• The Example by William Henry Davies by William Henry Davies
• The Dark Hour by William Henry Davies by William Henry Davies
• The Child and the Mariner by William Henry Davies by William Henry Davies
• The Boy by William Henry Davies by William Henry Davies
• The Bird of Paradise by William Henry Davies by William Henry Davies
• The Best Friend by William Henry Davies by William Henry Davies
• Sweet Stay-at-Home by William Henry Davies by William Henry Davies

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