Employees must Pluck out an
Eye before reporting for Work²
They assign a Body Endowed with a
Noble Spirit to an Inferior Profession³
They say “Trading Slaves is Unlawful” but
Isn’t the trading of Free people more a Crime?⁴
Was she told when she was young that Pain would
Lead to Pleasure? Did she Understand it when they
Said that a man must Break his Back to earn his day
Of leisure, will she still believe it when he’s Dead?⁵
I am tired of Planning and Toiling in the Crowded
Hives of men – I am Heart-Weary of building and
Spoiling, and spoiling and building again … for a
Dreamer lives Forever and a Toiler Dies in a day⁶
What I Dream of is the very thing it’s Lacking:
It’s Work without Poetry – without Meaning⁷
You sell your Life for Minimum Wage –
And now they get your Dreams for Free⁸
Each is doing their Life in dreams for
Wages, some Shit’s Profits, and their
Payment on a Dreamed Family plan⁹
The Life I’ve always Wanted, guess
I’ll never have – I’ll be Working for
Somebody else ‘til I’m in my Grave¹⁰
¹ Helen Keller, Why I Became a Socialist
² C.D. Wright, Deepstep Come Shining
³ Giovanni Boccaccio tr. Wayne Rebhorn, The Decameron
⁴ Abu Salma, My Country on Partition Day
⁵ John Lennon, Girl
⁶ John Boyle O’Reilly, The Cry of a Dreamer
⁷Anton Chekhov tr. Constance Garnett, Three Sisters
⁸ Richard Linklater, Waking Life
⁹ Alan Dugan, Morning at Speed Products
¹⁰ Tracy Chapman, Mountains O’ Things