Prolit

a literary magazine about money, work, & class

Color Study: Unemployed

I wanted green/ city bus yanking/ Fell into gutshot doctor/ distrust and back pain/
reader, you don’t get the details/ I wanted green/ I got disallowed back pay/ I was
dry & dragging/ black sky through plexiglass/ the trip home can swallow you/ I
wanted green/ I got lost in the metro/ winter fell like an axe/ disjoint and shrapnel/
I walked home and slipped/ night at 4pm like a maw/ I wanted green/ I saw
months and months stretched out like a corpse/ I wanted green/ I wanted green/ I
wanted green/ I wanted green

Color Study: Fulltime


I wanted blue. I struggle with the shape of my new life. Trees here look like
knives peeling back the sky. I work 43 hours a week and I’m not in love anymore.
My new life suplexes me. Sometimes the bus is late. Sometimes the exits freeze
over. When I try to jerk off, I think of my ex, and have to stop. Change is
measured in hourly wage and solitude. Sometimes you probe the wound. I wanted
blue. The CEO quotes Tom Cruise. Her children joke about cutting people’s pay.
We all smile and laugh. I wanted a riverbed rest, blue and barren. Sometimes the
rich sound like puppies. I wanted blue. I’m never alone, at work, but I am lonely. I
wanted blue. Sometimes I thought I’d find it.

Avery Lake

Avery Lake is a writer and worker in occupied Tiohtià:ke. Her first book of poems, Horrible Dance, will be available Spring 2022.