STIRRING
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
JEFF MOCK
is way too long. He’s hired clerks
to help him keep track of everything
he hasn’t done. He’s provided all the pencils
they’ll ever need. A pencil sharpener is attached
to the wall by the door, just where it belongs.
He is eager to begin beginning everything.
The clerks, though, have no idea
what he may want to do. They look
nervously about. They mumble, they breathe, and then,
because the pay is good, they write down
whatever occurs to them: adopt a llama,
learn whist, discover where those
lost socks go, develop patience
and read Henry James . . . Aimlessness,
it seems, has been achieved. One clerk, Barbara,
has almost reached the end of her scroll and for a moment
thinks of her own life. She thinks she’s been
a good girl this year—except for those
Wednesday afternoons with Wendell, who,
really, doesn’t meet her standards, except
he makes her laugh and tries so hard
to please her that he actually does, and some
days more than once. She could use a laugh today
and an hour to think about not thinking
about what her boss wants to do
and never will. She wonders what Wendell
is doing. She wonders what he might be doing
in an hour or two. So many things
one might do, so many.
No wonder her boss wants it all
written down. Still, her wrist is sore
and her eyes feel red and, finally, who
the hell cares about writing a million
haiku or founding a religion or making a giant
rubber-band ball? Her pencil has become
a stub. A nub. Perfect. Do aimlessness
and pointlessness mean the same thing? Maybe
doing everything isn’t everything. She recalls
how earnestly Wendell tries and that,
she thinks, is worth doing. And now she imagines
laying her head on Wendell’s chest and listening to
the quick thump-thump-thump inside.
Jeff Mock is the author of Ruthless (Three Candles Press, 2010). His poems appear in American Poetry Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The Georgia Review, New England Review, The North American Review, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. He directs the MFA program at Southern Connecticut State University and lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife, Margot Schilpp, and their daughters, Paula and Leah.
