Residual Man

by Laurel Szymkowiak

At work early,
always early,
residual man watches a lone
bird fly right to left
across empty Employee Parking Lot #1.

The morning morphs
through the window slit
of a back hall where he works
under an unused bulletin board.
His monitors
blur text ri? n? i? t?

He’s
passed over,
passed around—
talked over
in meetings
he’s stumbled into
by chance.
He can hear the ticking of hot metal cooling.

Once: Principal Staff Engineer
Now: Environmental Systems Associate
Overlord of Office A/C and Lights
Office Nag of Shoddy Security

He knows how this will end.

Already wrote the program
to replace himself,
uses the one that keeps him
needed,

saves the one he’s named
“bring them to their knees”
safe on a thumb drive
he hides under his shirt.

Leans against his desk—newly stained
by someone else’s coffee cup.