The rest

I don’t ever want to have a job

Just a paycheck, thanks

I will never need you

Your commute, attire, meetings, holiday parties, interviews

We are not compatible, me and business, career, occupation, job

I cannot fill that position

I am not the workforce

My sense of place is home

My life has no room for middlemen, it is all just doing and making, creating and birthing and feeding and bathing

I sleep hard having missed nothing

I milked the cow, I made the butter

I ground the wheat and baked the bread

I hoed the earth and reaped the harvest

Boiled the bones and rendered the lard

Fed the family and washed the dishes

Peed under the stars and listened to the coyotes

I will be here to do it all again tomorrow

One day a week I leave the children and the land for half a day

I swap juicy gossip at the market and bring home treats and news from town and enough cash in my pocket

That is all I need of the man-made world, I can do the rest



By Jesse Clark

Warwick NY