After ten years of teaching <br />in Brooklyn <br />I attended <br />the Rochester Institute of Technology <br />for three years <br />and needed only to present my Thesis <br />but broke <br />and hadn’t paid a credit card bill <br />in months <br />perhaps a year <br />so I sought a job <br />answering an ad for a “Legal Editor” <br />went to the place near Avon, NY <br />and was given a Xerox copy of <br />a Local Ordinance <br />the instructions simply saying <br />Revise, <br />correct, <br />and clarify. <br />The Ordinance was entitled: <br />Unlicensed Junkyards in Palmyra <br />the entire paper <br />printed in extraordinarily small type <br />and written in the most <br />obtuse legal language <br />so that not only couldn’t I understand <br />the text itself <br />but the instructions <br />left me mystified <br />as to exactly what I should do <br />yet I took a closer look <br />but hadn’t the faintest notion <br />what kind of corrections <br />were needed. At that moment <br />I longed <br />for the emotional subtleties of <br />a poem <br />but I figured <br />the best thing was to transform <br />the entire text <br />into simple declarative <br />sentences so I flooded the paper <br />with periods. <br />“Time’s up, ” said the woman. <br /> “Should I call? ” I asked <br />“Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” <br />The next day I saw <br />a classmate, Bill Binter, <br />told him of the opening <br />for the Legal Editor job <br />because he too was looking for work.” <br />He said, “Sounds horrible <br />Damn it, Bernstein, <br />don’t torture your eyes by reading <br />tons of local ordinances. Just wait— <br />we all have to. Our time <br />as artists will come. Hell—it’s here now <br />we just don’t get paid that’s all.” <br />On Monday morning <br />a man knocked on my door. “Who’s there? ” I asked. <br />“J. J. Commander <br />from the Commander Collection Agency.” <br />“Yes.” <br />“I’m here to see Steve Bernstein.” <br />“Deceased, ” I said solemnly. <br />“Who am I speaking to? ” he asked. <br />“Lyman H. Hoysradt <br />I moved in yesterday. <br />I have a brain tumor.”<br /><br />Charles Chaim Wax<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/devoted-to-his-art/
