Put On My Business Clothes

Karl Caminski

In the conference room we wear silk shirts and shiny pants

Silver belt buckles too

Slick purple vests

Doughy desk chair stomachs

Recycled business colloquialisms

Forced laughs

We wear these things

I used to only wear my business clothes until 5

Then I’d change into something more casual

But I don’t bother changing anymore

I lie around in the clothes

Like some kind of business sloth

I lie around in them for so long I forget I’m wearing them

The sweat and the stink stick them to my body

And they become like a second skin

I leave them on for months

Sleeping in them

Eating in them

Showering in them

Passersby say, “Man, that business guy was made to wear those business clothes!”

And I don’t disagree

And I especially don’t say that now, when I take them off,

I feel like I’m still wearing them