My right big toe
has been black and blue
since the time
old Benny Navarro
got me a job
working on the docks
at the Port of Kenosha
Standing in a crooked line
with unshaven faces
at five-thirty in the morning
I was chosen to unload
100 pound boxes
of frozen meat from dead cows
after the first half hour
one of the icy boxes
dove out of my left hand
and speared my right toenail
that summer after college
I felt like a Mexican
everyday
getting up too early
standing in line
as if my brain
was as thick as the
foreman’s shoe
Oscar Mireles
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/what-i-did-during-my-summer-vacation-that-made-m/
