Pressed by deadlines
Nagging artificial urgency
Bound mindlessly but mindfully to station
Bladder set to burst
Plagued by dogged loyalty to clients
Regardless of unlikely reciprocation
Tension mounting
Summit surmounting
The false hope of a completed task
Concentration shored up
By dubious self motivation
Labor forced defying poverty,
Eyes strained and bulging
Migraine rising
Back and shoulders sore
Unfit and incarcerated
Convicted for possession of freedom
And soliciting same to others.
Tired, tired, tired,
Unhappily indentured to debt
Days beyond night and early morn, recycle
Toil with lost reason
Light to dark
Day, week, month and year
Flick through calendar and season
Liberty is slavery rebadged,
But so sweet is the realized reward,
To dream without restriction
Try and fail and try again,
Success satisfying convictions.
Survey the big, your back to the small
With a few loyal companions as counsel
The weighty shared is soon diminished, and
Horizons of infinite options revealed
And you can have it all
The price is sacrifice, perpetual hard work
Tireless, tired, tiring toil
Powered by application and relentless dedication,
And you can have it all.
Retirement age grows older per generation,
The hard won gains of our forbears frittered away,
Retirement is mortality.
Liberty is slavery rebadged! Yes, we are slaves to relentless toil! Though back and shoulders are sore, sweet is the realized reward and retirement is mortality! ! A great poem in powerful diction and astute thoughts! !
This really motivated me. It made me think, no matter what, don't give up. -ralph
So ruddy true! The days weeks months flitting through the calendar, mundane tasks, barely achievable but with a glimmer of hope through assisted chats of colleagues. Stuck on the eternal hampster wheel. My favourite lines which held as a red spot in a painting are (Flick through calendar and season Liberty is slavery rebadged, But so sweet is the realized reward, To dream without restriction... A great piece of reality, laid down in clever and flowing words. Thank you... Karen
Great write here Danny, so true, and it`s nice to be retired!
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
What I would like to retire, is the thought that I must spend more and more time, energy and back breaking sweat, to see the true fruits of labor..while hours of simple hard earned pleasure, seem harder to come by...but still we trudge thru the quicksand....thanks for the eye opener...write on!