The Body’s Politics

salud she says when our coworker sneezes stay healthy you don’t want to get sick you might have to miss work and that means less money to pay for the heat

it’s cold outside the snow so high the governor declared a state of emergency but the store must stay open money is meant to flow at least it’s not walmart i work there too she says in the evenings sometimes we’re better off here trust me

it is a tense moment when we fail to protest our bodies do it for us convulsing a sneeze a seizure a cardiac event a violent demonstration of the body’s politics

snowed in at target we await rare moments of state intervention the travel ban that forced the store to close during the storm last week the threat of a fine when someone misses a lunch break

but if the state doesn’t intervene god knows our bodies will