Struggles

Life fortunes share burdens
life dreams share pain
sometimes in life
we find ourselves at the bottom

I struggled with the dream
of making a better life
university study's struggles
some people learn fast

some people study 
but then forget
some people fight
to make the study pay

My son reads things once
and then he's ready to sit a test
with me I read and read
but then I think about what I've read

forgetting, what I originally learned
He study's less but pasts the tests
I studied more but struggled to pass
some people learn fast but others struggle

I remember meeting a kid
on an unemployment course
you know the one's,
thousands of course's 

kids are forced to learn
told by their trainers
you must buy clothes
for your job interview

Your appearance is important
their mothers complain 
you can't afford to spend 
that much money

You must do this day after day 
she went for interviews
day after day, she was told
you don't have experience

trained to level two
didn't build the skills
employers wanted
day after day, brought failure

no job, no money, just struggle
she told me she felt like 
committing suicide
I tried to help 

but at the time 
my life was also a struggling
hope she found her way
to a better life

But a wonder 
how many teenagers
feel the same
how many commit suicide

Another friend much older 
also struggled to find work
facing day after day of endless no's
over fifty, it's hard to find work

I told her 
if you ask a hundred times
Get told no ninety nine times
and only find one yes 

it doesn't matter 
you only need one job
looking for work and getting 
nowhere is depressing

People say they're unemployed
they don't want to work
sometimes that might be true
yet maybe they just get depressed

It's a shame 
people won't work together 
save together invest together
to provide work for our people

Copyright © Bernard Barclay | Year Posted 2017