Their WorkAuthor(s): Martha CollinsSource: The Iowa Review, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Winter, 2002/2003), p. 40Published by: University of IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20155153 .

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MARTHA COLLINS

Their Work

These are the ones who don't

lie down. Not yet. Not yet lying

down is what they do, and it

is not easy, it is their work,

it is what they have to do, all

day, day after day. Sometimes

of course they eat and there

is the subsequent work of waste.

And at night, like everyone else,

they lie down and sleep appears,

no different from ours. That is not

work, though their dreams, like ours,

may make the work of the day more difficult, may even become

the work of the day, the work

they sometimes wish they had to do.

For there is no work more difficult

than theirs, sitting and waiting.

40

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