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vixengrl

(2,686 posts)
Sun Nov 23, 2014, 02:44 AM Nov 2014

Labor is the Curse of the Living Classes.

My brother works where people have been shot at.

More than one.

Things happen.
He checks out customers.
He works odd hours.

He sometimes walks home from work,
at any hour. My husband works those odd hours too.

Waking, raising, driving, working--

not even the ass-crack of Dawn,
the small of her back,
where night caresses Her as she sleeps,
and she dreams of makers of doughnuts,
bakers of bread,
counters of tills, and cutters of meat,
all up and at their day
before she arises
rosy fingered
and red-handed
arriving at the scene of a day
already stolen from working people.

I witness her some mornings
as she breaks in a world where I was told to
admire the watchers of the
the new day.
And drive as the sun rises,
and in winter, drive home as the sun sets.

I have seen the sun come and go
from my car window,
my office time artificially lit,
and my life comes and goes with it--
and when homeward bound in winter's dark,
I think my day too short and done,
my best hours consumed
in a lighted yet lightless place.

I work in a neighborhood where
people have been shot.
I work where cars shoot past, drivers needy
to be speedy

to get there at the punch-clock time.

We aren't friends, the people I work with.
They are and they aren't.
I know them, and they know me.

And I think work is
necessary but how necessary
are all the things that come with it--

not the benefits or pay--

just the thing where one lends one's life
out to anything,
anything at all,
so long as bills are paid.

7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Labor is the Curse of the Living Classes. (Original Post) vixengrl Nov 2014 OP
I truly enjoyed this. CaliforniaPeggy Nov 2014 #1
Hey Peggy awoke_in_2003 May 2016 #7
This is good! Sweeney Dec 2014 #2
Yes! biglinmarshall Aug 2015 #3
Welcome to DU. JDPriestly Aug 2015 #4
Thanks. Great poetry. JDPriestly Aug 2015 #5
I have written several rhymes to say what you succinctly said in one poem angstlessk Mar 2016 #6

CaliforniaPeggy

(149,583 posts)
1. I truly enjoyed this.
Sun Nov 23, 2014, 02:55 AM
Nov 2014

This really resonated for me:

I have seen the sun come and go
from my car window,
my office time artificially lit,
and my life comes and goes with it--
and when homeward bound in winter's dark,
I think my day too short and done,
my best hours consumed
in a lighted yet lightless place.


Nicely done!

Thank you.

Sweeney

(505 posts)
2. This is good!
Fri Dec 19, 2014, 12:30 PM
Dec 2014

Honestly, Good.

Poetry should not be about a lot of introspective dribble. Art is not introspection, but action. What do you do with what you feel. A baby cries. We cry, and we know how we feel when we cry, but poetry should not be blubbering and tears or any of the emotions exactly. Emotions are who we are. What we do is what we are, and in my opinion; you are a poet.

Thanks...Sweeney

angstlessk

(11,862 posts)
6. I have written several rhymes to say what you succinctly said in one poem
Thu Mar 31, 2016, 04:48 PM
Mar 2016

One was "work and work and work some more, do your job it's just a chore'

One other was about a co-worker who divulged all the 'secrets' of our co-workers, and promised that what I told her was just between her and I (tongue in cheek)

Another about a co-worker, but I don't remember..I lost all my rhymes my when computers crashed several times

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