By John Snider

sniderrex68@gmail.com

His job had no health insurance.  His daughter owed thousands of dollars to a beauty school that had gone belly up.  His son came home from the latest war to save the world for democracy and spent his days and nights drinking and shaking in his room.  And in a few years his wife would die from a heart attack after having to wait for four hours in an emergency room that had too few doctors.  When you find 10,000 of these men, who are not that hard to find, and get 100 dollars from each one–then you will be a millionaire.

Oh, how you love the boss!

You hurry home, eager to tell your wife that he laughed at one of your jokes.

You admire his new car.

You worry about his company’s finances.

You read his son has scored a touchdown in the big game

and want to be first to mention it at the bar.

He drinks his coffee black,

and then so do you.

But you know things are out of focus.

You feel dizzy from time to time.

At night you hear laughter behind you

and turn to see nothing.

And when you are let go or retired,

you stand in the parking lot for the last time,

a bewildered look on your face–

like the audience volunteer who has just been hypnotized–

and made to cluck like a chicken.