Graveyard Shift Poems | Examples


List of Member Poems

Premium Member My Husband Worked Graveyard Shift

I will never work the graveyard shift
Because elementary students are not awake all night.
My charges whom I persuade and uplift.
They bring me all kinds of happiness and light.

My husband worked the graveyard shift
For about a year, once upon a time, many years ago.
We had two small babies, so the real challenge was mine.
Trying to keep them quiet so he could sleep, filled me full of woe.

He would wake up and be nice about it, but it was not ideal.
Working the graveyard shift means your day sleep must be real.
I am so glad those days are over, they were stressful to me.
And to my husband also, as you can plainly see.

Premium Member The Graveyard Shift

ghostly figures dance
diaphanous dresses swirl
in the pale moonlight


it’s the graveyard shift
on the eve of Halloween 
we’re in good spirits!

10/10/17

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Sponsored by Laura Loo

Premium Member Creepo Mortician Who Loved the Graveyard Shift

The lighting - it was over-bright
above the table where she lay,
her skin dead cold but lovely white.
The lighting -it was over-bright,
He loved work best alone at night.
With corpses he could have his way.
The lighting - it was over-bright
above the table where she lay.

Written June 19, 2016


Graveyard Shift

Almost awake they come dragging in, at daylight they are zombies ready to leave
                        Gallons of coffee is never enough,the hour before dawn is the worst
                                        The shift from Hell, could not have a better name

The Graveyard Shift

He lounges behind a desk in a late night vacant foyer
Answering calls, making log entries, and filing papers
The dark hours slowly leaking from his tenuous life

The phone rings and he repeats the same weary greeting
He issues information to faceless enquirers
Hanging up, sipping his coffee, he makes notations

Outside, the empty parking lot is speckled with light
Emanating from lonesome uniformly spaced poles 
Illuminating the white lines of vacant parking 

The sound of rushing steam, clanging metal, and cold rain drops 
Echo upon the plate glass windowed empty cocoon
That bares the reflection of his tired, lost in thought face

Anticipating the next abandoned grave yard shift

© Copyrights G. Jones 2008

Graveyard Shift Lament

An angel an evening.
To my counter they come.
I take their money. 
They take my time.
The genuine cost lying somewhere between.

An angel an evening. 
An art museum.
A zoo. 
To look but not touch .
To touch but lack feeling.

An angel an evening.
The rat race slowed for sodas and smokes.
A corner of the world a new nightly.

An angel an evening.
Ever changing drama. 
Ever changing insight.
All in the guise of minimum wage.


Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.

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