“Work,” by John Engman, from Temporary Help
I wanted to be a rain salesman…but…I am paid to make the screen of my computer glow
Mary Karr on John Engman (she excerpted “Work” in her great memoir, Lit):
In prosperous America, the poet’s economic reality usually involves working a crap job while scribbling nightly in a cheap apartment. Before my pal John Engman suffered a brain aneurysm in his 40s, he toiled in such obscurity. He lived in Minnesota, bussed tables, did standup comedy for a while, taught a class or two at a local community center, but only published two books. From his long-time job as an aide in an adolescent psych ward came poems rich in pathos, each tinged with his signature irony.
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