Lee Potts

After Hours

We allocated to the office
ghosts miles of dark halls, windows
that never open full of empty
parking lots, every unused
voicemail box and ask them
to tally all night
the pages secretaries
didn’t lock away, the ceaseless
teeth behind each
clock’s face, the chairs
with broken wheels.
If we left them the last
piece of birthday cake
at the end of the day
it was only because
we forgot it.
They know how often
you cry in the last
toilet stall on the left.
They admire your
commitment to silence.

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Lee Potts is the author of the chapbook And Drought Will Follow. His work has appeared in Rust + Moth, Whale Road Review, UCity Review, Parentheses Journal, Firmament, Moist Poetry Journal and elsewhere. He lives just outside of Philadelphia. He’s @LeePottsPoet on Twitter.