Short Stipend Poems

Please stop child labor
Let the poor kids go to school
Please give them stipend...

Read More

Time is a drug,
both good and bad

Infecting and curing,
the happy sad

Time is a stipend,
to cash at will

Its fund ever spending
—to last until

(The New Room: February, 2021)...

Read More

Listen to poem:

.
*Image of Woman with face mask sneezing into elbow while shopping by iStock.

Silly Masqued Cough It

Silly masqued cough it,
sassed out her topic,
eating her words and meds,
"So long you deniers!"
one sat down beside her,
then stipend masqued cough it each day.

2022 February 06...

Read More

there once was a time
when i had value---
a worthy member
of society---
a respected entity;
but that was
when i was a young twig…
today i am seen as a dying
aged tree---a burden
stifling society---
a worthless stock,
leeching  a monthly
survival stipend
intoxicant (SSI):
tomorrow I will try to pawn 
my “forty years of service”
watch....

Read More

What can I say about my sisters?
Are they a thorn in the side, like blisters?
Or my oldest friends, indeed,
Always mentors in time of need,
The family ties that bind,
Ever ready to say "Never mind",
We look alike, but think apart,
Oldest friends from times long past,
"Older ladies', we've ripened,
Can't buy sisters with a stipend,
Are sisters thorns in the sides like blisters?
No, you cannot buy my sisters!...

Read More

Extra pay just to do one littler thing?
It put a skip in my step that mind-blowing spring.
Stipends! Stipends! Stipends! I began to chant.
I told the principal, “Water your own fern plant.”

It got so I would not stay one second late without pay.
So, the city school really did ruin me in a big way.
Stipend is a word I wish I had never learned actually.
I was a much nicer educator, and more willing when I did things free....

Read More

A gusty portent hope to amend
Marches blustery winds descend
Shearing the surface of its trite dividend
Silting  innocent souls with bleary stipend
Chilling tides with thawing hearts contend
Spring's nuanced rhythms to ruefully bend
Mercurial shadows peace to rend
New years good will to rescind
Fate's jading shield doth wend
Each fortuitous yield to suspend
Chilling residual; dark clouds cerebrally suspend
Briny misery o'er resilient hearts to append...

Read More

MEANS TO AN END
Was I just,
 a means to an end?
I am aghast,
at that stipend.
That I found in hat,
for me to mend.
The hurt in heart this fact,
to straighten every bend.
Nothing could tear us apart,
do you recall each weekend?
I must have been a bat,
not to notice your trend.
Crouching scheming as a rat,
who can never be a friend.
Was I just,
a means to an end?
I suppose veracity is that,
I have no more letters to send.
LiterarySpaceAfrica  Ian Munywe©...

Read More

it really wasn't quite fair
the profit that came to you
at the cost of my redemption
the recompense I paid

just like a Midwest highway
the tolls they bleed for use
the value of what is measured
set by others at my expense

you pocket the small stipend
my love, my heart, my soul
moving on to the new quarry 
an unsuspecting host

never looking over your shoulder
there's nothing that holds you back
a conscience not left muddled
your scruples still unimpaired...

Read More