dirt blues

   
   
we’re fucked and we know it  
   
have opened the ground up on the job    
and the water is flowing so fast through it    
twenty feet down  
that I’ve been dreaming pissed-away dollars all night    
   
it’s a seven figure fuck-up  
or I haven’t been doing this twenty two years  
   
nothing to do but ring the man who owns the company    
and tell him as straight as straight    
“we got real trouble here”    
   
he goes quiet on the phone  
serious and sane    
and we get to talking about plans    
plan B    
plan C    
and another plan after that    
because that’s the game we’re in    
   
then I hang up the phone    
and think about all the jobs I’ve done before    
bad ones    
good ones  
watch the men coming up from the hole    
heading for smoko laughing and joking and paid by the hour  
with a fat autumn sun yellow on their shoulders    
the sky as blue as a sailor could hope  
   
decide not to smoke any more today    
go back into my office    
close the door    
sit down in my leather chair  
today a hollow symbol  
   
kick my feet up on the desk    
close my eyes and rest awhile    
   
it aint my money we’ll lose    
and I’m fucked if I’ll wear a heart attack    
for dollars that never passed through my pocket    
   
then I think about my woman and my dog    
four hours' drive north of here    
   
she’ll just be getting out of bed now    
coffee on the stove    
cat on the kitchen table knowing he’ll be shooed  
her slippers on    
rooster crowing to be let out into the yard    
and still    
and still    
and still    
I’d rather be here    
   
makes no sense  
to say it like that  
   
open my eyes again  
growl a solid “ah fuck it”  
shake that shit off  
take my phone from my pocket  
get back to the job I signed up for  
for better or for worse  
married  
to the dirt