Inventory

The shower water is never quite hot enough.

I wipe the glass and see the mark on my leg,

a deep, plum-colored bloom

on skin that hasn't seen a park in months.

The pallet jack caught me at four o'clock,

a metal tooth biting through the denim.

The company won't pay for the damage,

just the eighty cents an hour it took

to make sure the ledger stayed balanced.