At the Maid Museum we honor the many who have cooked meals in other people’s kitchens, washed floors, labored on holidays, nursed the frail, and tended the children. The Maid Museum houses art commemorating Maid Culture by the best artists of our time. On exhibit are wall-sized paintings, large-scale photography, sculpture and installation. Artifacts, letters, and other ephemera are preserved and on display in the temperature-controlled galleries. Our docents are robust, learned, but unrobotic. They have mastered the pronunciations of all of the Maids’ names. Doing so is required research and research is synonymous with interest which we value here. The Museum is free. We are open 24 hours to accommodate the many faiths and habits in our community. The coffee is good and strong and you will agree. Tea is served on every floor. Lunch too is good. There are complimentary house-made pickles and free refills. All of our employees have health insurance so that getting sick is not also shameful. Uniforms are provided. There is ride-share, snow days, sick days, paid vacation, direct deposit, and a generous R&D budget. On payday at The Maid, every employee receives a brown envelope with a handwritten letter by one of the poets-in-residence thanking them for their service. Each note describes “One Thing Done Well” during that pay cycle. The envelope may also include an image of you documenting that moment; images culled from the surveillance footage. The Maid Museum is currently hiring. All applicants are welcome. We are an EOE.
Copyright © 2016 Jan-Henry Gray. This poem originally appeared on poets.org as part of the 2016 University and College Poetry Prizes. Used with permission of the author.