|
Perfect Attendance
The hurdles to work that hamper the rest of us
Never keep Vernon Burke from driving his bus.
Despite the roads iced like cod in the hold
Of a trawler, fish-tailing trucks that rolled
And blocked his exit, he still sails in. Clock
That fails to be alarmed when a storm knocks
The power out? Vern has a backup windup.
The beater’s starter stutters to a stop?
Vern takes the spare pickup. Even with fevers
And colds these thirty years, he’s a believer
In always showing up. This morning he crawls
In with flu—my riders’ gift, he sniffs. I’d call
In sick, I say. With a sound like gargling phlegm,
Vern laughs: I gotta give it back to them.
Michael Spence, from The Bus Driver's Threnody, published in 2014 by Truman State University Press. Michael spent thirty years driving public-transit buses in the Seattle area, retiring from that job on Valentine's Day, 2014.
Got a labor poem? Email us at info@laborheritage.org
| 
