The Golden Child: A commentary on work ethic and the working class hero

Dad retired

I took him out for sushi

I don't think he liked it

I insisted on paying since I'm the only one with a job now

I could tell this was very hard for him

Read the Prayer of Peace at Zach's Bar Mitzvah

I was fucking nervous, but had no right

He literally had to speak in Hebrew for like 4 hours

It was something, to be a guest, where I once was the help

Worked a triple shift over Halloween

every part of my body hurt 

As I left the bar my face dripped coffee oils and beer foam

my black turtleneck was covered in garlic butter from the tray of apps

that the lady in a blowup dinosaur's tail whipped off the table and I barely caught mostly with my chest,

I watched the streets fill with 20 somethings and I just wanted to go home.

I am going to buy myself a new set of sheets

blinds that roll up and down instead of being tied together with string

Enrolled in my last three community college classes before student teaching

I started getting the Sunday New York Times delivered straight to my door step

and the idea was I would sit on the couch with my coffee and read the paper

with my fake fireplace and clearance rack candle

    but my shift starts at 8:30 and the paper arrives at 8:00

            so I look through the magazine as I wait for my tips.

We have these ideas on how things are or aren't

    I can convince myself that this is how I want it to be

        I like me, because I am all these things

            I can keep myself up, by continuing to improve

                Here is where I am, today

I can do that as long as I am comparing myself to me

not what I imagine you compare me to.

                        I can not, be that.