Swatches

Swatches

In Boston I was on the subway
I was reading Windows Ninety Five For Dummies.
As we headed downtown at seven in the morning
Two Japanese Stepped onto my car.

I looked up at a Gucci watch
They were getting off at Harvard
I knew they had a briefcase full of job offers.
The ride was to an interview.

I got off at City Hall
And walked across the cement patio
To the steps to South Market
And waited to see a woman.

She was from Buffalo
And she set me up with a job
After a typing test
And fifteen minutes of talk.

On the ride back
I saw the poster
Of a watch on a fence link-chain
An Official Sponsor of the Olympic Games.

When I got back to Niagara
I bought two
And an extra battery
From a nice older jewelry saleswoman.

I tried to sell one
A week later
To Black Fourty Seven’s friend
But Chip wanted it too cheap.

One was silver and grey-faced
And another Black and silver cut.
You can see the gears inside
The six-point star and hear it ticking.

I had one with copper cuttings
At the beginning of Chicago
It was purchased in a Mall
In Toledo Because I’d left the Timex.