The weight of the day begins to fade,
As shadows stretch where light has played.
Unlace the boots, let stillness grow,
And feel the clock begin to slow.
Now close your eyes imagine a golden gleam,
A heavy coin within a dream.
Reach out your hand and take the prize.
You’ve earned the peace behind your eyes.
For children’s maw a woman slept,
When not, wage and daily bun slept.
In hope that at late last he’d come,
Windows, leaving doors open, slept.
The night, shadowy more than shy,
On spreading her dark omen, slept.
‘I need none whoso in all world’,
My pride, in death all undone, slept.
Dog-tired, enduring my burden,
Me all awake, my divan slept.
________________________________
Ghazal |05.12. 2023| sleep
Based on a Gujarati Ghazal by Mitra Rathod.
He remembers it before it arrives,
To collect a far one hundred miles drives,
To keep stalling payment his life deprives,
Better he ended up in beehives…
The end of every month full of meaning,
It’s a female worker’s time for preening:
In a sense, a life of subordination;
No envying other’s ordination,
Especially after allowances;
Just watch out for Michael Jackson’s dances!
In bed strong muscles completely inert,
Until their owner receives credit alert;
Boss wins the heart of a worker through wage:
The ones who split it their workers’ strength cage…
A promise of the life of “hand to mouth”
It has been the same story North and South.
You don’t wait, when an old mouth had gone out;
You’re asking for The Tormented’s sure shout
The Truth: worker’s wage plus his boss chance tips:
That way boss sure praises on his lips…
No fence for cactus. Donkeys don't need to bridle No degree for smart
The new chappal bites
We can't cut leg for chappal So think before act.
Don't let child labour Child's wage is a social sin.
Allow the child free
THE WAGE OF SIN.
What' should I call this?
Fortune or misfortune?
The fate of my curiosity.
Akin to that of the cat.
A child a blessing from God.
But this seem not to be.
A child out of wedlock!
A bastard they'll call.
My peers have forsaken me.
My mama I opted for.
The worst she has done to me.
She disowned me.
A salt that has lost it saltiness I'm.
What's the remedy to this.
An abortion is a sin, they say.
Leathal as well.
Enough caveats I got,
But I defied,
This grave I dug myself,
Surely I must lie in it.
My dreams shattered down.
Out of school I'm
The star that was about to shine.
Is turning dim daily.
?@Kipngeno Robin.
Tha Formidable Cheru.
I stepped on his nerves
And like a dog, he got to me
Making me feel his vicious mood
Like a sweet bitten apple
That tastes the anger of the tooth
His furious mood keeps me running
Away from the vicinity
To dodge the punishment
His rapid footsteps behind me
Weakening my mind
His grunts, warning his closing up
My mind, weakening and falling apart
What would be of me?
When he puts me down
And hold my limbs in both arms
For the capital punishment
For I was once told
The wage of troublemaking is pain
Mind battles we wage every day
As of reflex instinct
How long will our ego hold sway
Mind with heart, not yet linked
When we lower our guard
Stupor takes us downward
Our behaviour wayward
Giving vent to rage
Mind battles we wage
06-November-2021
Quietus
(Syllables: HMS)
A consistently poor wage
Licenses rage:
An ugly fight against the cage,
Steady enveloping of stagnant wage,
A temper warning every wedge,
Rising while lowered with vintage.
Hirers open a sterile page,
Not a complimenting line for a sage:
Reflections of his usage,
Not a half paragraph for his adage…
The low income earner won’t this manage,
Nor life in his fatiguing village:
The vast hum drums sight,
Of farm-tools tauntingly bright,
For all their promises of fast tillage,
Putting The Townie at a disadvantage.
Any hopelessly downsized wage,
Is cash that the teeth sets on edge,
The Hired white with shock
Over Hirer’s heart of steely lock.
Battles we wage, an ego urge
A dream life, make belief
Belying delight of bliss surge
Soul lost; our thoughts the thief
Play earth role, as assigned
With pulse of love aligned
Desires, to bin consigned
Actor on stage
Battles we wage
29-September-2021
Quietus
Minimum wage
The olive trees in the landscape
near the village,
Have working-class trunks
and no illusion
Of becoming middle-class trees.
They refuse to grow
in a plant- nursery and be tampered with
by botanists.
They do not envy tall palm trees.
Good luck to those who see the world
through an elevated height.
Good soil and water the plebian olive tree wants
it has deep roots and will not fall
in a storm.
A diabetic to his steward
On the table is your sack letter,
Beside my unfinished tea, no better;
Four photocopies of it in my file,
Their original to be collected by you;
Sure evidence that your stewardship was all rubbish
And that, henceforth, I would to you be snobbish.
Your offence was the many sugar cubes in my tea,
For which I had painfully continued to pee;
A bizarre blood sugar level from the lab!
Pictures of my grave finished off with a slab!
Yours was a clever murder move,
My ceaseless tremors there to this prove.
You‘d tried to my door unbolt to an undertaker
And my journey begin back to my maker.
You may now go to my sitting room
For your last wage
But don’t fail to storm my bedroom
For your luggage.
And, please, do forget my clothes in the Laundry,
For even now, they badly sense my quandary.
We are the workers, call us
an hour before an absent fill shift
The pyramid sprouts atop of
The heavy depths of broad ordinary,
Breadth mopped and swept
Silent cogs push motion
Everywhere, rarely heralded
Carpet of field mice scrambling
Part of the pattern, crucial
Expectations remain ingrained
Pith of the fruit, flavour generic
Bolster of bricks protects
Lighthouse of blinding brains
Scratching hand to steerhouse
Tightening bolts, scrubbing deck
Nugget behind their high shine
We are the labourers, casual pay
covers days not at work, sticking
To meagre styles, life defined
By the hemming, wage stemmed
- Can't afford to ask questions
Surge of activity, pothole filled
Inhibited by flurry, imagination aside
Menial smooths the cement
Minimum makes no plans
beyond next week, when, - if
I have a job. We will do any dirty
Demeaning chore, and thank you for
Your grace in giving it to us
6th August 2020
It Sucks - Contest
Kai Michael Neumann - Sponsor
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 speak then
But for who
Is it for the dead
Is it for the fire
Is it for hell
The grave will
Also say a lot
When we are finally
Ready for the war
Of the rich
When the rich wage war
They turn evil
They breath like the
Fuel of hell
They suddenly becomes
The twins to devil
They no longer feel
Cos they taken
Taken away by the
Powers of darkness
How can the blind
See in the dark
In this state of the mind
Confusion Is equal to madness
That why they wage a war
Of no reparation
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 ... hire the next bum
Long hours,
short money
Start of another minimum wage work delay
Ruling class
won’t lower the glass
End of another Mgt downshift on a wage upgrade
Always in need of a higher raise,
minimum hourly salary stuck on a retrograde say
Twice a month collect a powerless payday
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 these.
True humanity smudged and hidden,
By the the hands that should nurture it.
Waging wars against fellow brothers and sisters,
Fighting to own the land that isn't anyone's to own,
It all seems so stupid to my silly eyes.
Ready to sacrifice self,
To fulfill someone's selfish needs and beliefs;
I don't see the point,
Why bring more shame,
When shame we live in;
Why push our children,
Into the same worthless lives as ours?
For once , let us wage a war,
A war against wars,
A war aganist evil,
A war for unity,
For maimed humanity.
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