Magnetron
Magnetron
by Jon Bennett
I was broke and desperate
so I went to Fisherman’s Wharf
and took the first job I found.
It was at a store called Magnetron,
a steel shack with walls
covered in refrigerator magnets
they sold to tourists.
There was no chair to sit on, just a pole
in the middle of the room.
On my first day my boss said,
“Please don’t lean
against the pole.”
She was an Irish woman
who pronounced “forty” as “farty”.
“I’ll try not to,” I said.
One day she caught me leaning against it.
“Try harder,” she said.
“I promise not to lean on it,” I said,
“if you get me a chair.”
She didn’t fire me.
It was hard finding people to work there.
When I was finally able to quit
she said I was a good guy
but a terrible employee.
Now when I see refrigerator magnets
I think of all the days
sucked from my hands
to make a dollar.
I’m sorry, but reading this I can’t help but think of all the people today who would be happy to find any job, even if it sucked the life out of them.
I think almost every job sucks the life out of you. Spending 40 hours a week at a day job and then finding time to write poetry is going to bleed over a few negative thoughts. Especially just standing there in a tin shack. While some jobs are better than others I think it’s perfectly okay to vent about one’s terrible job.
Yah, I’d have to agree. But when I think of some of the crappiest jobs I’ve had, I cannot but help associate them with some of the people I’ve met along the way. For instance, I worked at a this corporare chain grocery store for about 5 years. Hated it. However, I also met a lot of cool people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. Some of them were quite inspiring.
Great photo!