I got a job as head porter in a department store.
I was a working supervisor. I helped my men—
two black guys working second jobs and a white
high school student—clean the store in the mornings
and take the stock out on the floor. I also did light
plumbing, carpentry, and electrical work. Painting.
I fixed the vacuum cleaner. It sucked up paper clips.
I got fired for stealing. I thought I was toting.
They saw it as employee theft.
I left one step ahead of a shoeshine,
two steps ahead of the county line.
Jaye P. Morgan exposed her breasts
on national TV. The Gong Show.
I was writing poems in a Big Chief tablet.
Writing novels in my head. I was working on
THE NINTH NOVEL. One of them was REJECTED POEMS
and one was a collection of three novellas and a nonfiction piece.
One was a memoir about moving to the mountains to live poor and write.