he ate his breakfast over an 18 year old drafting table covered in pistachio green linoleum
he liked whole wheat toast with black currant jam and cinnamon raisin bagels with honey
buttered with salted butter
and sometimes buttered crumbs would fall onto what he was drafting leaving stains on the vellum
fall onto the parallel bar getting brushed out if it’s crevices weeks laterÂ
and what he drafted didn’t pay for the crumbs that fell onto what he drafted didn’t feed him no
he worked 50 or 60 hours a week doing something else to pay for what he ate over his table
for the crumbs that fell
and in the dark cold morning as he ate breakfast before heading to this work
he knew it didn’t matter to him whether it was a drafting table or a dining table
and come friday night of a 57 hour work week he would imagine
these buttered crumbs falling onto the diploma he earned and his resume
the stains of living as an independent man in America more real than any identity
heat flow 