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Today I Will Be a Compensated Spokesperson |
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by Dustin Luke Nelson
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2:00 |
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There is a blinding punch to the eyelids, I adjust
My glasses, straighten the blue silk tie
(bought special for today). I ask
Do I need to speak? Do you
need a statement? – No. The compensated
spokesperson, they say, at this business,
does not speak.
I write my name legibly on the form, one letter
per box, outlined in periwinkle. – Look
happily, without smiling, into the camera,
they say. And that’s really it. Dustin Luke
Nelson. (No period.) Compensated Spokesperson.
(Period added for emphasis.)
My photo in leaflets available at the receptionist’s
desk, or banner ads on trains. Maybe at the landing-
page of their website, or a special
section of the site just for the compensated
spokesperson. Are there others? They are busy
and they do not respond.
Home Staff Mission Links Compensated Spokespeople.
A little bit about why I was chosen. (Maybe an extra
photo that doesn’t appear in the ad.) Maybe
a little on where I am from. Looks average.
More-or-Less. Then New York, well Astoria, by way
of Minneapolis, by way of St. Paul, by way
of Eau Claire, by way of Pittsburgh,
by way of Austin, by way of Shakopee.
I will be a comfort to those who don’t know
who to trust. They will look and see my pleased,
but not jubilant, face. They will think:
He looks satisfied with his service.
I want that brand of satisfaction. Or maybe:
He has a nice honest face. A Mid-Western face,
though not farmerly. A Mid-Western boy
who knows what he wants. My Mom, someday,
will stumble over this, looking, wondering what I’ve
hidden, and she will think: My son has made it there.
Though she won’t know where there is, or what was made.
And I will think, retrospectively,
about something which I do not know actually
happened, I have done my job well.
Dustin Luke Nelson is a co-founding editor of InDigest and the InDigest Reading Series. He's been a writer and producer on Radio Happy Hour and Geocahers. His put word assemblages in Tiny Mix Tapes, Bookslut, Powell's, Film Forward, and elsewhere. His poetry has appeared in H_NGM_N, Shampoo, Monkeybicycle, Twin Cities METRO, and other things both physical and unreal. He lives in Astoria, NY.
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