Friday at the Shoe Warehouse

quiet
and it is nice
simple
no music, no talk
meditative
working the 9-5
anonymous in the 
shoe warehouse
they speak Chinese around me
they are family
i am a pale outsider
working under them
i keep quiet and enjoy
being nobody
no phone, no break
no lunch, no need
for the first time in a while
i finally relax
put my focus on the
task, task, task
such beautiful silence
keeping company
slow the heart beat
hush the rush
a reprieve from the
pressure of fulfilling dreams
and then
they go home 
to each other
and their others
i to myself 
and my dogs
a tune, a story
perhaps silence again
and i don't get their lives
and they don't get mine
but we work side by side
don't bother trying to 
figure it out
just enjoy the quiet
and do the work
and pass our lives
punching clocks