Thursday, November 6, 2025

Two Ghostly Jobs


—for Josephine Patrick*


The restaurant’s full of people. Wow 
I’m gonna enjoy this, I say to myself. 
But I wish you were here to attend your 
Own death anniversary party: Ghastly! 
It’s full of people who really know your 
Father who’s really the celebrity here, 
You weren’t considered society like 
Your father. He still has his factory.

You go work at that factory now you’ll
See how he’s treating us all today, now that
You’re gone, now that nobody’s running 
Our cause, but why did you ever have to
Get smashed by unknown persons at your 
Pop’s factory? You had this restaurant.


—*Josephine Patrick became the companion of the Filipino American fiction writer and unionist Carlos Bulosan. This poem is not about her as much as it is about what her persona in the fictional picture represents as a native daughter of neoliberal America.8


No comments:

Post a Comment