On a Coworker’s Final Day
By: Lori D’Angelo
It was your last hippopotamus
before the storm. Cheer up, Matt
from Medical Exits said, at least
you're not dying. He would know.
His company name a euphemism
for what it really does- disposing of
the dead. You bought your coworker
a cake you couldn't afford. She didn't
even seem to understand or maybe
she just didn't care that you had
purchased the treat with your own
money and afterward you would
be paycheck to paycheck rationing.
Deprivation is the flipside of luxury,
a line you regularly walk. You fall
over doorstops, head trickle bleeding
like your father-in-law, dead now,
did once. You think of Kenny Rogers
Roasters, gone now and wonder if
in the end he broke even. So many
childhood film stars have crumbled
into tell-all Instagram fame, has-been
biography book deals. Publishers leap
because people think stardom equals
wisdom. But really the homeless man
ranting outside your work on his better
days has more local yokel colorful life
advice to impart. In the end, cameras
off, she was just a girl playing a part.
When the parts grew fewer as her poise
on and off camera faded, she got a face
tattoo. Predictably, the audience stayed,
superior feeling, watching curiously to
see if she would implode and how bad.
Lori D’Angelo’s stories have appeared in various magazines such as Broken Antler Magazine, Idle Ink, Litmora, Divinations, Thin Veil Press, Worm Moon Archive, and Wrong Turn Lit. Her first book, a collection of short stories titled The Monsters Are Here, was published by ELJ editions on Halloween 2024. She lives in Virginia with her family. Find out more at loridangelo.com.IG | X | Bluesky