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BIO
Paul Lojeski is the author of the satiric novel, The Reverend Jimmy Pup. His poetry has appeared in Barrow Street, ABZ, Right Hand Pointing, Counterpunch and Paumonok II, an anthology of Long Island poetry and photography. He lives with his wife and daughter in Port Jefferson, NY.
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At the Light by the Hospital
I stopped on red.
Warm August
evening. Engine
idling quietly,
windows down.
Succulent breeze.
Perfect. Looked
over at the brick
and glass and the
shadow of long
gleaming hallways
and oxygen tanks
and someone’s
last rasping breath
maybe at the same
moment the light
changed and
I turned towards
the ocean.
.
When the Foreman Came Round
In the metal cathedral of flame
and sweat everyone shut their
yaps and worked it double-time,
feigning earnest dedication as his
frown of power swept over us,
judgment lashing out in the flash
of those black marble eyes;
fuming in that cold glare the
threat and power to render us
penniless, at the mercy of the street
and the unseen hammer of a land
fashioned of violent indifference
and the ruination of greed.