Sestina

Off into the world; it opens the entrance.
This town is but a wasteful desert.
Travel like Alice, down, down, down,
Until reaching where our feet refuse.
Carry me away, with the wind!
Life comes, but way too frequent.

Ahh! The disasters are but frequent.
All is closed, even the entrance.
Words of the wise travel by wind,
Tales of the majestic lie in the desert.
We will all stay put, and refuse!
This cruel world will never keep down.

How did we come so far down?
Normality is so common and frequent.
Why did we ever think to refuse?
Life is but one gigantic entrance
Here lies an endless, dry, deceitful, desert.
We are leaves, mobile by the wind.

Lightless, free, inevitable, wind,
Never shall life put me down.
My feet ache from sand of the desert.
This happens much to frequent.
Here lies the wondrous entrance,
But it’s much too easy refuse.

Never! Never! We shall not refuse.
I belong to the unrestricted wind.
Where stands this so called entrance?
The rabbit voyaged deep down.
Swirling, dancing, exploring, frequent,
Please don’t leave me to the desert.

At no time will I desert,
Or ever give a reason to refuse,
Don’t be so fast and frequent.
Storms start by the wind.
Let’s go down! Let us drive down!
Discovered, I have unearthed the entrance.

An Ode to a Keyboard

Black and white keys

Stretch across the top

This keyboard.

Such magnificence

It brings

When the keys 

Are stroked.

Granted I know

Very little

About how to

Use it.

The songs of

“Hey Jude”

And “Let it be”

Are almost

All I know.

My fingers feel

As though they dance

Across a field

Of colorless steps.

Such delight,

When I touch

The right notes.

Such agony,

When the wrong

Key is played.

Someday I will

Learn more about it.

Till then its

Striking music

Will keep me going.

"A&P" versus "Orientation"

   "A&P" by John Updike and "Orientation" by Daniel Orozco are two stories about a workplace, yet  they have many different views. When it comes to the manager or supervisor of the workplace "Orientation" give a vague description while "A&P" is a little more informative. In Orozco's short story, it states "This is Matthew Payne's office. He is our Unit Manager, and his door is always closed (pg.48)." The short six sentence paragraph that contains this is all about the manager, but does not give the reader the real feel for who the manager is, how he acts, and what type of manager he is. Now in Updike's short story the manager also has a brief part in the story, but you can get a sense of him and his actions as a manager. For example of his personality, in the story it says "Lengel's pretty dreary, teaches Sunday school and the rest, but he doesn't miss that much (pg. 601)." Lengel also seem to be pretty strict in his rules for the business.An good illustration of this is, "Girls, I don't want to argue with you. After this come in with your shoulders covered. It's our policy (pg 602)."
   When comparing both stories they have pros and cons to the jobs. For example of a pro in "Orientation" the author states, "We also have a generous vacation and sick leave policy. We have and excellent disability insurance plan....We are all members of Costco (pg.47)." A con could be "Feel free to ask questions. Ask too many questions, however, and you may be let go (pg.46)." In Updike's short story the pro, for the narrator, could be the three girls who catch his eye and become his "eye candy". The con could be the uptight manager, Lengal.
  One last comparison between the two stories is that in Orozco's short story states that the narrator has a job that seems to interact more with customers and in Updike's story the narrator interacts more with the supposed new worker. In "Orientation" the narrator speaks in second person. A sample of this is, "If you prefer Cremora of half-in-half to CoffeMate, there is a special pool... You are allowed to the coffee pool of your choice (pg. 48)." Throughout the whole story it is about explaining the office life to "you". On the other hand, you have "A&P" where the narrator speaks in first person and the story is based around I, the narrator; "I look straight up this aisle to the meat counter... I watched them all the way (pg. 600)."