You Can't Make Chicken Salad

by: Mark Fontecchio

The office man thinks of nothing
but work, and there are no perks
for substitions have been made,
institutions have changed,
and that's just it: you can't make
chicken salad from chicken shit.
 
It's quantity for quality,
agility for ability.
But the marrow has drawn thin,
the bones reversing in little
by little, slowly gone brittle
and he sits,
 
thinking of nothing but work because
some jerk robbed him into thinking
that life job.
And now he says, tomorrow I will quit.
But all he does tomorrow is say,
tomorrow I will quit,
and that's just it: you can't make
chicken salad from chicken shit.