Lunch on the first day of spring.

Trucks sit half-dissected.
We wade
towards the break room,
buzzing like tired honeybees.

Petroleum products
and wintergreen
tobacco
hanging on old men,

leaning their elbows on
faded green lunch coolers.
Talking about bush-hogs,
campsites upstate,

orange gojo soap,
scratch-off tickets won and lost,
uncaught trout,
dogs on the run,

and 35 years clocking in at 6 am.
The big bay doors are wide open
pouring sunshine
across the floor of our shop.

Steve Comstock was born and raised in Baldwin County, Alabama. He served with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. He now works as a diesel mechanic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.