I said no
I was scared

because the $60,000/yr
wasn’t enough pay

because the plane ticket
would have run me $500

because I’d have to
uproot myself
& sudden
tonight

so today
I spent twenty minutes
talking to a former Chrysler machinist
who just had his second hip replacement
after working 100 hours a week
for thirty-seven consecutive years

never got to see his daughter
never got to see his son

lives in a trailer
on a backroad to nowhere

reports back to work
on Monday

I said no
I was scared

Chad W. Lutz is a speedy human born in Akron, Ohio, in 1986, and raised in the neighboring suburb of Stow. Alumna of Kent State University's English program, Chad earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Mills College and currently serves as an assistant editor for Pretty Owl Poetry. Their writing has been featured in KYSO Flash, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, Gold Man Review, and Haunted Waters Press, was awarded the 2017 prize in literary fiction by Bacopa Review, and was a nominee for the 2017 Pushcart in poetry.