{"id":2901,"date":"2019-01-28T00:00:43","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T05:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=2901"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:44:56","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:44:56","slug":"jan-28-jamaal-may-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2019\/01\/28\/jan-28-jamaal-may-shift\/","title":{"rendered":"Jan 28 — Jamaal May – – “Shift”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, \u00a0January 28<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u201cI used to\u00a0want to be this bad at a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

I hadn\u2019t posted a poem from Detroit poet Jamaal May in a while. \u00a0He writes \u201cShift\u201d with the subtle density of language that characterizes his poetry. \u00a0 \u201cShift\u201d asks a reader to read two or three times to find a way into a world of growing up into an adult\u2019s awareness of often violent power moves by supervisors over the people temporarily in their power; this all the while learning the honor of showing up and doing a job. \u00a0 It\u2019s worth the 2nd and 3rd read, better out loud with pauses.<\/p>\n

Have a blest week.<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

p.s.\u00a0In Detroit we are a couple hours into the beautiful stillness that often accompanies a snow storm with only a little wind.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

today\u2019s post: \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cShift\u201d<\/p>\n

Acting on an anonymous tip, a shift supervisor<\/p>\n

at a runaway shelter strip-searched six teenagers.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Haver was taping shut the mouths<\/p>\n

of talkative students by the time she neared retirement,<\/p>\n

and Mr. Vickers, a skilled electrician in his day,<\/p>\n

didn\u2019t adapt when fuses became circuit breakers,<\/p>\n

a fact that didn\u2019t stop him from tinkering<\/p>\n

in our basement until the house was consumed by flame.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I used to want to be this bad at a job.<\/p>\n

I wanted to show up pissy drunk to staff meetings<\/p>\n

when the power point slides were already dissolving<\/p>\n

one into another, but I had this bad habit<\/p>\n

of showing up on time<\/p>\n

and more sober than any man should be<\/p>\n

when working audio\/visual hospitality<\/p>\n

in a three star hotel that was a four star hotel<\/p>\n

before he started working there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When the entire North Atlantic blacked out,<\/p>\n

every soul in the Hyatt Regency Dearborn flooded<\/p>\n

the parking lot panicked about terrorists and rapture,<\/p>\n

while I plugged in microphones and taped down cables<\/p>\n

by flashlight\u2014you know, in case whatever cataclysm<\/p>\n

unfolded didn\u2019t preempt the meetings. Meetings,<\/p>\n

before which I\u2019d convince a children\u2019s hospital<\/p>\n

to pay fifteen dollars to rent a nine dollar laser pointer.<\/p>\n

Thirty-five bucks for a flip chart,<\/p>\n

extra paper on the house. Is it good to be good at a job<\/p>\n

if that job involves pretending to be a secret service agent<\/p>\n

for Phizer\u2019s George Bush impersonator? I don\u2019t know<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

if it\u2019s better to be good at a bad job or bad at a good job,<\/p>\n

but there must be some kind of satisfaction<\/p>\n

in doing a job so poorly, you\u2019re never asked to do it again.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying he\u2019s a hero, but there\u2019s a guy out there<\/p>\n

who overloaded a transformer and made a difference,<\/p>\n

because in a moment, sweating through my suit,<\/p>\n

groping in the dark when my boss was already home,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I learned that I\u2019d work any job this hard, ache<\/p>\n

like this to know that I could always ache for something.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a hell for people like me where we shovel<\/p>\n

the coal we have mined ourselves into furnaces<\/p>\n

that burn the flesh from our bones nightly,<\/p>\n

and we never miss a shift.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BY\u00a0JAMAAL MAY<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.jamaalmay.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, \u00a0January 28 \u00a0\u00a0\u201cI used to\u00a0want to be this bad at a job.\u201d I hadn\u2019t posted a poem from Detroit poet Jamaal May in a while. \u00a0He writes \u201cShift\u201d with the subtle density of language that characterizes his poetry. \u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2901"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2902,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2901\/revisions\/2902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}