Hired Man and His Boss

by Joel E. Jacobson

Work is inevitable
the inspired and the sloth
must punch the clock
on the docks fishing
in the vineyards picking
or simply sticking around
the town square waiting
for work to fall
like crumbs from a table.
✡
I’m the best you have–
the first in, last out,
most integral asset
for your business.
Yet, I’m nothing
more than a voodoo doll,
a pricked puppet
thrown away at the end
of every cursed day.
Can’t you see
what I’ve done for you?
Wash the scales
from your eyes
and reward me
with what I deserve–
not him, not him
who came in
at the last minute,
picked the dead and rotten
off the ground
and handed it to you
as if worthy.
✡
That light rising
on the horizon,
the light that within
weeks fades
the papers framed
in cheap plastic or wood
that light is the sound of
those you never had time for,
those who gleaned a poem
with smashed grapes
and the waning minutes
of day.

___

This is part two of the Storytellers project. See part one here.