Shift Work.(Poem)

 
SHIFT WORK 
 
   All my life I've worked shift work 
     --casual remark at 45th school reunion 
 
   and here we are at the end of the dog watch 
   the sky in the east blast-furnace red 
   "mother" at home, now without the kids 
   to herd out to make way for the worker, 
   but habit is hard to break, and the mind well-trained, 
   and you still sleep and dream after lunch 
   of that once a week couple of schooners 
   ...