Multiplied Fortune

Multiplied Fortune

(“When the workers arrived, the ones who had been hired at five in the afternoon were given a full day's pay.” Matthew 20:9)

The day was elastic, it was short and round;
I turned in my hours and found I worked for
more and put in so little time I could not be considered
an employee at all.
Was I worth a dollar, maybe two? But how could they
pay me for an entire shift when I barely was there at all?
I barely showed up,
I gave it my all,
I surely did not deserve
the wages I did not earn,
paid the same as workers there from
morning till last call. Should I contact the manager;
was there a mistake?
Should I bank it or invite someone to dine with me
to celebrate my good fortune?

I stared at the check and subtracted the zeros,
I wondered if I would be paid the same tomorrow,
if I would work a longer shift and be rewarded more;
would this benevolence continue, or would I have
to trade my pay in for
a favor I had not anticipated? I rubbed my fingers over
the ink and the numbers; they did not run.
I wondered was it a mistake, had I heard the offer all wrong?

For now, all that mattered was meeting a few friends
to celebrate with drinks and buy the first round. I could
barely hold it in,
I could scarcely begin to describe my good luck,
the grace I discovered when I was the last one in
and the first one paid. I’d show up tomorrow and
work for wages I did not deserve and wonder where
the manager got the idea
to multiply fortune to someone he found lounging
hoping for a minimum-wage job.