Pearl Diver

by Marcus Colasurdo

Totem-pole deep swamp
 water digger. 
some say bottom of the line
 un-carved man,
womanly scrubber of pots & pans,
 map-knotted palms
 on all kinds of Sundays-
bristled-knuckled
 Brillo thumb-scratched-
Fluid human whirligig, 
 low-scrolled
 some say scripted
but knowing:
 this
  world
   runs
    on
     water
and its labor is a miracle
taken too cheaply:
booze money
food $$$
rent-room cash - 
 maybe you never visited
 the back of the house
where the wild-hair ragman
where the steel wool woman
toil:
 still, some of the invisible people,
like some of the visible people
  buzz-matter-hum all around us
indispensable. 
 breakfast
 lunch
 dinner rush-
   tippled at times, tipsy
with suds & soap
 with ketchup & crud-
 hidden gems
 In the humid house,
sustainers of the neon,
 chalk-board double daily
 special manifestos:
crusted, bloody finger-nailed,
 constantly scorched in restaurant earth-
cleaned & diluted
 nicked & scalded:
  play over bowl
  over hour
   after hour   after hours-
  still finding,
 if not a pearl,
    exactly
  in the bottomless
  drain-pain work
  but instead,
    finding
  the rhythm
  of the dance of utensils-
  the long necessary
  song
  of the knife & fork & spoon:
  even oh-so-bleary
   and red-eyed tired,
  come first time
   come last time
    come overtime-
  finding that song,
   that song that belongs
    just to you.  

Marcus Colasurdo is the author of 11 books and a member of Anthracite Unite. Over the years, he has worked as varied as Los Angeles taxi-cab driver to Job Corps counselor. He is the founder of the Soul Kitchen, a community meals and clothing program (in Baltimore, MD and Hazleton, PA) that currently feeds 400 folks monthly and provides various other much-needed items to needy folks in those communities.

Also by Marcus Colasurdo: Getting Shot; Small Abundance; Bakery; Making Masks; The Simple Justice of Eating; Unchained Pierogis; Sanitation; Anthracite; Letter of Transit