Mantis 21 (Summer 2023)
To Raise a Glass, or Down It
John Peter Beck
Pinochle Poem #1
This morning,
I feel like I have been
lying at the bottom
of a gallon of cheap red wine,
but all I had was just one beer.
It must have been
the cards.
It must be
a pinochle hangover
from having
too many lousy hands.
Well, I’m paying
for that card game now.
Nothing to do
but take an aspirin
or stay in bed,
and I’m out of both.
JOHN PETER BECK is a professor in the labor education program at Michigan State University, where he co-directs Our Daily Work/ Our Daily Lives, a program that focuses on labor history and the culture of the workplace. His poetry has been published in a number of journals including The Seattle Review, Another Chicago Magazine, The Louisville Review, and Passages North, among others.