Donato Mancini

 

Until some annoying angel comes
To enact the duties of a low paying job

 

Until some annoying angel comes
it’s best if we just enjoy this time.
So, my plan had been to be a success. Ants, slugs.
Yes, I did try. Mrs Pac Man had politics.
It’s truly the little people who
make this company great. I really tried.
When I was a waiter, I was fast.
Pac Man had drive. And then, after layoffs
productivity spikes. Can’t we move
back? Back then we were short of staff. Smile more.
Landlord wants me to mow the grass. No
I don’t mind if he spends it all on booze.
He sacrificed. Bare hands. The land was a steal.
Brain drain. Toll. Refugee. Sloths aren’t lazy.
Try. In our opinion, we do pay fairly.
Successful men do the hard stuff first.
I still want that heated muffin. Says:
it’s good to have hobbies. Treat clients like gods.
Keep a clean work-station. Don’t lose your passion
To enact the duties of a low paying job

 


 

inside of an inside joke, the
here. but the parody goes like this

 

inside of an inside joke, the
if this is. I had a wonderful.
it was one block wide. one foot deep.
present the arms, hold the pie.
wee bit of money in the casket…
a gold mine. a gold yours. gold hiss.
pie the present, warm the holds.
horse lying dead. best bets show grievances.
squeak half, half groan. you sound just fine.
hold the arms, present the pie.
great sores from little toe-corns grow
here. but the parody goes like this

 

 


Donato Mancini’s books and chapbooks include: Loitersack (2014), Buffet World (2011), Fact ‘N’ Value (2011), Æthel (2007), and Ligatures (2005). Same Diff (2017) was a finalist for the 2018 Griffin Prize. Having spent much of his life in Vancouver, Canada, Mancini is currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of English at Johns Hopkins. The poems published here, in the form known as the “grafted fatras,” transpose and collage material from Maged Zaher + the Bible “Until some annoying angel comes”, and from Louis Cabri + Isaac Asimov’s Treasury of Humor : A Lifetime Collection of Favorite Jokes, “inside of an inside joke.”


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