Decline of the Animal Kingdom by Laura Clarke

Author:Laura Clarke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: POE000000
ISBN: 9781770908031
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2015-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

III.

Dead Mule Zone IV: Overwork

What happened to the mule?

The mule? The mule died. Of course.

— CORMAC MCCARTHY, THE CROSSING

Supervisor:

You’re not paid overtime unless you work 44+ hours,

so if you’ve put in 43 hours, it’s to your financial

benefit to stay another 1.5. Anything you contribute

to the company blog will be on your own time.

Mule:

So difficult to choose my favourite animal YouTube video,

but I’d have to go with the owl petting dog.

Supervisor:

Your type of appendages, specifically shiny black hooves,

are unlikely to develop carpal tunnel syndrome, but if you do,

your benefits kick in after three months of full-time employment.

Mule:

As if we too might be hanging out by the backdoor sprinkler

and find new and miraculous uses for our claws,

and, if we’re being cynical, and the owl was just picking nits

out of the dog’s hair, that an audience of four million

might mistakenly view our killer appendages as tender,

that a single 2:44 clip might erase a vivid history

of soft white mice ripped to shreds.

Supervisor:

The upper left corner of the Pizza Pizza sign will always

be visible from your desk. It doesn’t undulate in the wind,

change colour at sunset or fall to pieces and rebuild itself

every hour. That’s just your imagination.

Mule:

Do I relate to the owl or the dog?

It depends. A hoof is to a claw is to a hand

is to a paw. Sometimes pizza grease smears itself

across the skyline in primitive smoked-pink messages.

Sometimes a red crane moves across the ceiling-to-floor

glass window and the man inside waves at you

and part of you moves with it.

So I guess I would like to know if it’s fundamentally

a question about freedom. Before I answer the question.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.