EXPERTLY USELESS AT
AGE 50
I came home from a job
I didn’t have any more
Had a job one day
Next day was shown the door
and that’s when I thought
“man I miss being a wage slave whore.”
Kissing some bosses ass day after day, more and more.
Wasting all that time trying to lick
my lips clean of his
power hungry shit
I knew one day
that mess would end
but god damn I never thought
it’d be this way
with the little prick
fucking me in the ass
laying me off
just to make me
another
unemployed
homeless
broke
shopping cart pushing statistic.
I never knew
that when I was sucking up
I should have been learning to chew.
Now I know
that a kid
can do what I once did
can do what I once did
maybe not as well
but what say?
but what say?
Why not?
What the hell?
Motherfucker does
it for half the pay plus tips
and cleans his plate
and never is ever seen
licking shit from his lips
for there it stays.
It's more politic that way.
I don’t mind though
It's more politic that way.
I don’t mind though
I can last on the streets
for another 15 years
while that little kid
is trying to figure out
why he hates his job
has to eat shit
goes home in soul tearing tears
looking forward to the day he can retire too
just like me after a number of years
except he’ll be useless at age 42.
© M Durfee
5/21/13
No one knows the word oligarchy
And when I tell them what it means
they all stare at me like it’s a bunch of malarkey.
Trust me a clawing prick trying to rise higher
his shit tastes just as bad as the boss
he stabbed and climbed over so he could fire.
FADING WEIGHTS
The years ever more quickly pass dusk to dawn
no matter the name of the road you walk upon,
you just learn to trust as your feet keep moving on.
And as I slowly fade away, leave your loving side
just when you’re all alone may you remember that
I had both a heart of human flesh and one of stone.
One kept me moving and the other a stronger place
I carried with me just for you to shelter behind until
you could feel your freedom came at its own steady pace.
Then when you are no longer in need of a cover
from the storms that once so easily came upon you
that is when will discover you have a granite heart too.
You will have your own rock hard place within your soul
that you will use to help another through a stumbling roll.
And I, I will simply fade along to a new free found
territory.
I do not fear fading from your time, days, or the weight of memory;
my heart of stone will be crushed to gravel, my love given
was understanding that to help another is how life is lived simply.
© M Durfee
5/21/13
Who was it that taught you that hate is not a construction?
Where did you learn that hate was not loves destruction?
Forgive my lack of words that could not help love’s
production.
ha. a laugh only in understanding the shit canning, being replaced by one cheaper and younger...and little does he know we too were once young, ambitious and naive...learning to chew...smiles...
ReplyDeletekeep passing that rock heart along...i hope we keep the one of flesh as well that keeps us reaching out...
Brian a stone shelter will last far longer than a mere muscle.
DeleteMark, do you know I migrated to Canada only 8 years ago at a not so young age and 3 teen-then children. But I learned quickly that work here is brutal, with the employer telling you first, you have to be part time or contractual, then sometimes not extending your contract. But I have survived, skilled and upgraded, and now productively working. I see the young people struggling and on top of student loans and a poor market, I can only imagine how challenging it will be for them.
ReplyDeleteI also like the heart of granite, we do learn the ways of surviving ~
Happy to read you have been or grew up near Ottawa, its a lovely place.
Have a good week.
Grace at one time I considered Ottawa to be the cleanest city in North America.
Delete8 years ago coming to this continent was just about the right time. That was when employers became visionary and knew they were holding the upper hand, through the mass enslavement of debt. Then the markets crashed and they started to pull every trigger aimed at an employees head.
Personally I think we only survive because there are more of us to reach out a hand than there are of them trying to cut that hand off.
Why is it that the days pass faster? Could it be that after a time we have, indeed, seen it all and it no longer holds us spellbound in timeless fascination? 'Twere that the case, doesn't it seem that the days would drag on like they do when bored? Hearts of stone grow out of familiarity for, after all, familiarity breeds contempt.
ReplyDeleteCarleton a stony heart is not of necessity contemptuous, but it is always a barrier (hopefully of wisdom from lessons suffered through and survived).
DeleteI don't know Einstein said time accelerates as space curves maybe as we age and grow fat that is why we are moving faster to our end where we can simply face away.
You have such a powerful way with words: sure, frightening in their insistence that the reader not turn away.
ReplyDeleteI admire that.
Pearl
Pearl I am too old now to try to be diplomatic in my words, I have learned that people love an accident scene until it's their wreck. I am generally of a mind to point out that this wrecked world is our wreck. It belongs even to them that caused it but are not yet harmed by it.
DeleteAnd this before coffee!
ReplyDeleteThere is a clear picture in each poem, a clear message, a chant to wipe our eyes and see clearly. And that, my friend is enough to guide our souls to the next stage.
Rosaria--always always coffee first. The day should begin with a small pleasure for you never know what comes up with the sun.
DeleteI do believe that we, the common, are despised and found to be fairly useless to the oligarchs but at the same time if we are smart we will be shields for each other from the harshest of realities pitfalls.
Maybe I should retire?
ReplyDeleteNaw.....
Galen You can retire when I finally get to own for myself a new car. That means you should have at least another 20 years in your work life.
DeleteThese will sit with me for a long long while, Mark. Yeah, kissing ass is a hard way to live, but what is the alternative for so so many?
ReplyDeleteTakon to the first part then I say the idea has gotten through and will be spread. To your question my answer is how much are you willing to lose if you stand up and fight for your rights to be human and treated with dignity? It was our believing in lies that fooled us into allowing society to step off on this path.
DeleteYou are th chronicler. . . .everyone else looks away...
ReplyDeleteuseless is in the soul of the beholder
ALOHA from Waikiki
Comfort Spiral
~ > < } } ( ° > <3
Like you Cloudia I can only speak to what I see. Someone has to speak for ground zero.
DeleteSyd that is the secret of good husbandry "yes Dear" being the only response necessary.
ReplyDeleteI have eaten plenty of shit in my life but once I left home for good i never took the first bite. That new habit of being expensed out of a job is the curse of the white collar class, the rest of us just get worked to uselessness.