A brief preface to this can be found at
Despair and Hope (Preface to "The Job")
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Job – Part I
The job I
do, it pays my rent and more,
it gives my
life a form – and when at work,
I see a
village there, of which the kids,
the teachers,
others and myself are part.
Although I
know it’s just a fantasy,
this fills the
emptiness and gives a why,
a reason to
arise at dawn. The work –
it’s filled
my life for close to thirty years,
and it is
endless, overwhelming, yet
it’s better
than the walls and emptiness
with which I’m
left on those rare times
when I have
done what’s needed to be done
and so there’s
space.
And yet, for
all the sustenance it gives,
the job
deprives me too of sanity.
For all those
years, obsessed with doing right
what can’t
be done, left little space for else.
And more and
more, I see how mad it is,
this job I
do – and my insanity.
And so, when
there is space, there is regret,
and not for
what I did, with all my heart,
but for all I
never had a chance to do,
the duties
that were lost to distances
and this,
the job that I and others do.
2014 April 17th, Wed.,
6:47 am
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Job – Part II
We work to
pay the rent, to feed ourselves,
our
kids. But in our times, with workers
flung
apart across
the continents, our labor
may
become, for some of us, the thread
we daily
weave that strings what’s passed, the now,
what’s
coming, into one. So what to do,
when all our
work is seen as meaningless?
And as the
pressures mount on those who work,
we work yet
faster, more. The workday spills
and washes
over evenings, weekends, more...
And so it
is, that some of us may find
that
holidays are spent in catching up
with all the
job-work that we couldn’t do,
while
working, daily, at the job we do!
And so, we
seek escapes, from all this work,
and some may
find more healthy ones than some.
And others
yet are good at what they do,
efficient,
even, one may sometimes think,
as were the
ones who burned the Gypsies, Jews…
But that’s
unkind. Let’s tip our hat and go.
2014, April 17th, Wed. 7:14 am
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Job – Part III
We learn
from our mistakes and those we see
that others
make, who might not care to see.
Be slow to
judge what others seem to do.
For each may
walk upon a path, and each
may think
that that’s the only path there is.
But paths
are myriad, and the walkers too.
But never
run, although they force you to.
For that’s
when kindness ends and cruelty
begins.
“Oh yes,”
you say, “that sounds all well and good.
But when the
bulls stampede, who dares to pause?”
Well run
then, for your life, but try to slow.
If speed is
catching, isn’t slowness too?
The worker
in the line must work at speed.
She’s
caught, like soldiers are, who’re sent to kill.
But wars are
madness. So are human mills.
The mills are
not what we or those we teach
Are destined
for. It’s up to me and you,
and not the
ones who order, pass decrees.
If not for all our students or for us,
then for the students and their teachers next,
then for the students and their teachers next,
let’s bring
a little meaning back to school.
2014, April 17th, Wed. 7:33 am
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Job – Part IV
The savvy know, what counts is packaging.
For who has time to open up and check
the innards of what's marketed and sold?
And yet, when it's our child that sits at school
or it's our mother, in the hospital,
who is it then, that then becomes the fool,
and why the wailing at the state of sin?
2014, April 17th, Wed. 1:43 pm
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please see also the brief preface to this, at
Despair and Hope (Preface to "The Job")
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Job – Part IV
The savvy know, what counts is packaging.
For who has time to open up and check
the innards of what's marketed and sold?
And yet, when it's our child that sits at school
or it's our mother, in the hospital,
who is it then, that then becomes the fool,
and why the wailing at the state of sin?
2014, April 17th, Wed. 1:43 pm
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please see also the brief preface to this, at
Despair and Hope (Preface to "The Job")
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