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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• Hobbinol; or The Rural Games – Canto 2 by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Hare-hunting by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Fortune-Hunter, The – Canto 5 by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Fortune-Hunter, The – Canto 3 by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Fortune-Hunter, The – Canto 1 by William Somervile by William Somerville
• For the Lute by William Somervile by William Somerville
• First let the kennel be the huntsman’s care by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Field Sports by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Epistle from Mr. Somerville, An by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Chase, The – Book 1 by William Somervile by William Somerville
• All-Accomplished Rover by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Advice to the Ladies by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Address to His Elbow-Chair, New Cloath’d, An by William Somervile by William Somerville
• A Padlock for the Mouth by William Somervile by William Somerville
• “Young England–What Is Then Become Of Old” by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Yew-Trees by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• “Yes! Thou Art Fair, Yet Be Not Moved” by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Yes, It Was The Mountain Echo by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Yarrow Visited by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Yarrow Unvisited by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth

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