"You Are a Chain Manager in a Similar Field", Jack Xi
The one the bungalow tai tais want to speak with.
The one who stress-tests the cookies behind counters,
conducts quality checks with a ruler and some stolen crumbs.
Measuring each logo, ordering gloss for copy.
You say that cheese placement was just too sloppy.
To say they’re paid peanuts is to overstate crumbs.
Counter each plea with I’m sorry, these are hard times
for us all. Cut the width of a life in six inches.
Leaving the keening in the freezer, you wince.
You park by short concrete walls streaked by time,
crumbling before chain-link, field, fig-matted forest.
A floppy-eared dog flees its owners in the mist.
How do strangler figs grow? Node, one-piece flow, contango, fold.
How would you deal with an upset customer? Forests
time life in rain and the occasional piss. Own your future,
Sandwich Artist™! Your badge is cold chintz.