Mike Berger, 11/30/2009

Current Occupation: PhD in Clinical and Research Psychology, Utah State University.
Former Occupation: Weber County Mental Health, 1961-1991. Senior therapist on the youth team. Specialized in ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) in children.
Contact Information: Mike Berger is bright, articulate, handsome and extremely humble. He is the author of two books of short stories, and three of his humor pieces have won awards. He’s been writing poetry for less than a year. His work has or will appear in 35 journals, including AIM, Still Crazy, First Edition, Stray Branch, Midwest Quarterly, Evergreen and Krax.

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Roughneck

The plane was full.

I stared at the man across the aisle.

He was dressed in blue coveralls.

His hands were massive and

he had dirt under his fingernails.

He wore a shaggy beard.

I struck up a conversation with him.

He was a roughneck from

the oilfields. He operated the huge

drilling machine.

He was leaving the oilfields and

flying home. He had been laid off.

He said that he would have to wait it out

but he thought he’d be to work

in a few months.

He must have seen a frown on my face.

He laughed and went on to explain,

when the price of gasoline dropped below

three dollars a gallon the company cut back

and laid everyone off. There is a glut in

crude oil. When the glut runs out the

company will jack up the prices and he’ll

be back to work.