company man

there are men who leave
for work in suits and ties,
clean-shaven, carefully sipping
coffee so as not to stain their shirts

cubicles and offices hint at
secret lives, but they manage
to project their sophistication, their education,
their leisure to the world,

at day's end,
they return home mentally disheveled,
but physically, only time has passed.

another man starts his day in a pick-up
that is his office,
unshaven, with steel-toe boots,
& an orange cooler of ice water strapped
to his truck bed,

he comes home spent,
covered in the sweat and grit of his trade,

when I run mid-day errands,
I catch a glimpse of his tanned forearms
at a red light, watch him work
at my contractor's job site
or at home when I need
an estimate to rebuild the back deck

I wonder at his work-life, if it's
easier to battle four seasons
hanging drywall than dozing through
climate-controlled staff meetings

such men do not, I suspect, attend
mandatory diversity workshops,
instead, they lean out truck windows
and whistle at a housewife barely maintaining
a semblance of appeal,

she is properly offended,
but as she looks down to hide her smile,
she is grateful
for their company