Poetry: Analysis by Joe Couture

Analysis

 

I was working

as a vegetarian butcher

in a coppery-smelling

meat market

where the last guy

who hacked cows and pigs

for a living

was a vegan.

 

Anyway,

at the end of each day

a cleanup guy came

and worked all night

cleaning bloody bandsaws,

knives, fatigue mats

caked with fat, and

pink bone dust

that sprayed

everywhere

on Prime Rib week.

 

He was quiet,

so am I.

Months passed

before he told me

he had moved here

from India

for education.

 

Back home,

he had his master’s

in Comp Sci.

Here, he did this

and cleaned public toilets

and pulled shopping carts

out of snowbanks.

 

Exhausted,

he asked me

when he would begin

his analysis.

He explained this

was his practicum

for the data analytics program

at the university.

 

I wish I

could have offered advice

or relayed my frustrations

about his situation

instead, I

laughed,

he looked concerned,

and I continued hacking.

 

 

 

 

 

Joe Couture is a writer living in rural Nova Scotia. His work has appeared in Eunoia Review, The Rye Whiskey Review, The Rat's Ass Review, and elsewhere. If you want to connect with him, try here: @rjcouture.bsky.social