Best Wage Poems

Time paces
-tick, tock-
life trudges between its
tick, tock.

hurry, hurry
-tick, tock-
rush to all the garbage pails
each minute means
another few cents
stalling means
no job to pay the rent
tick, tock

eat, eat
-tick, tock-
slender meals and bitter thoughts
of life and all its tick, talk....

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There was a young woman with daughter

She worked more hours than she oughta

Worked her fingers to the bone

Needed a payday loan

To pay for the shoes that she bought her...

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I stepped on his nerves
   And like a dog, he got to me
      Making me feel his vicious mood
         Like a sweet bitten apple 
     ...

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Minimum wage.

Sometimes i lie in bed and feel the room 
shake and rattle as a train goes by. 
A train that sounds like a DC ten 
with three hundred lucky souls onboard. 

After it passes i listen to the arguments 
coming from the higher floors....

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“The two sides sit
around the square table;
like the cheeks of one’s ar*e
together only, till the 
crap starts to appear!”


 © Harry J Horsman 1997...

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We build the castles we destroy,
We pave the road to our destruction;
All so clear to all,
But all live under the giuse of ignorance,
'Cause to accept all this,
Would mean a hurt to our ego,
A stain on the face of our built-up humanity.

Lies,deception,jealousy,hatred-
Making way for more of...

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She's in the H Bed for an overdose
She's a broken
But beautiful girl
A rose
In and out apparatus to help her breath through her nose
I'm her holding her hand because we're close

I'm her 
 friend
The weird one who has on his aunts dead husbands clothes

Capture this moment...

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The boss makes hours up.
The workers have shift work down.
Pay is all around....

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Short money,
long hours
End of another minimum wage day

Working class task,
sweat gaze into a ceiling of glass
Start of another yesterday factory pay

Punch the clock ... 
job requirement is knuckle bare minimum
Labor output don’t equal the paid sum

Advancement ain’t an option,
maximum effort is weekly inconsistent
Fire the lazy...

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Nineteen Fifty Six -
If they raise minimum wage,
Can't afford to hire!...

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Helpless puppet
Dancing on a string
Make me dance
Make me sing

I must bow deeply
So I can eat
Yes sir, okay!
May I clean your feet?

You pass your exams
You earn your degree
I’m your favorite flunky!
Pass judgement on me!

The employee consultation
Is your bone-cracking mallet
Why, I’m just a canvas
Or a color on...

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two old poems
from the book
2000-2001



Minimum Wage

Pigeons coo
as Seagulls fly
in spiraling swarms above
(universal?)

Birds in anticipation of an unknown purchase
practice aerial acrobatics
**** spattered on fresh Windex streaks
Squeegee stopped mid stroke
and swaying as I scream skyward

Formations unaltered
unlike the boss’ face

Windex bottle shattered
blue liquid down the drain


Sand King

Atop the...

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when the rich wage war, it is the poor who die
overflowing their bank accounts as they lie

hiding behind niceties as they make us slaves
wars made to control us, which they create and crave

when will we learn that segregation is to take?
not just our lives, homes...

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Oh how I'd dreamed my love was true-
'Till he rose from my arms and went to you,
And then to yet another's bed
And all the while, "I love you," he said!

He took from you your sweetest wine
Then back to me, to drink of mine-
While we both...

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When the rich wage war
Power is intimidating
To the head low
If not his ego 
Will rise his shoulder
Higher beyond his 
Fears
Then the disabled
Is able to look at 
The world and see 
Their Shadows in reality

When the rich wage war's
The poor die 
Either in silent 
Or violence
Shadow...

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