If only work was optional
This week’s Totally Optional Prompt is “work.” With some decidedly elitist quotes to color our perceptions. I dashed off the poem below. The italicized lines are from “Chain Gang,” recorded by Sam Cooke, among others, and I am unsure who actually gets the writing credit.
Desire Stronger Than Steel
Oh don’t you know
that’s the sound of the men
working on the…
revolving office doors to ultra modern lobbies without chairs
swiping the building pass to pile in elevated sardine tins ready to roll the lids off and watch you get eaten
practice privacy in a public boxes while having conversations with wives and children and husbands and boyfriends and maybe three out of four playing solitaire or watching YouTube videos as long as the boss’s door is closed
double-tall half-caff no foam latte life free with a full punchcard
parking garage attendant knows your name like it’s Cheers, “Hi, Norm.”
Deadlines mean you work over the weekend so you can afford the life you’re supposed to have because you have a corporate job and commute to your 4 BR 2.5 bath finished basement in the suburbs while you see your wife with the socially acceptably kept to the bedroom sexual perversions just long enough to have the kind of sex summed up as: even when its bad… while she gets out the vibrator and you get out the tie rack
lather
rinse
repeat
office doors are all revolving and “in” one day means “in” the next
As usual, when I see the page up, I will post the work-y poetics link here.Edit: Go to it!
Comments
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 11:20 pm and is filed under Poem, Poetry, Totally Optional Prompts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Very good, this.
Thanks, Jo! -tom
“Deadlines mean you work over the weekend so you can afford the life you’re supposed to have because you have a corporate job and commute to your 4 BR 2.5 bath finished basement in the suburbs”
It is happening here too and very fast….
That is very unfortunate, Gautami. The corporate takeover of existence is very pervasive :( -tom
Yup. Good post -
Thanks, Tumblewords! -tom
Nice use of language– the unpunctuated run-ons really give it that non-stop, high-pressure feel.
Well, to be fair, there is a colon. And an ellipses. :) Thanks, Tiel. -tom
very good.. i like the way it is almost a mechanical read,, like the stepford-husband thing almost.. i feel bad that it is not a science fiction thriller tho,, but more probably someone i knows life….
Thanks, Paisley! I wish it was historical fiction and not commentary :( -tom
Oh the things we do to pass the days–trading imagination for toys on the pity floor! I certainly agree with you about the “work” prompts made by folks who consider smirking work.
Smirking is work. Hard work. I should add it my resume, I do it quite well. -tom
Perfectly captured! ~Linda
Thanks! -tom
Holy cow I love this interpretation — you capture the grinding of the machine so well, and the surprises in the lines work well. my favorite line is “practice privacy in public boxes.” I have a public desk and I feel like a criminal whenever I check my gmail. :) Great work!
Thanks! I work in IT and do a lot with email administration, so I have to use gmail from time to time (wink, wink)… it’s just part of my job… -tom
Thanks for reminding me that that’s the kind of work I don’t want. - I like the way you’ve written this.
Thanks! -tom