Man In The Image Of The Job Poem by Raj Arumugam

What would the Ancients say of us
if they could see us now?
Circumstances make a man....
in these times,
one is what one does; the self
is moulded in the routine of a paying job;
the person is the construct of the job...
For take the man or woman out of a job
and give him or her no occupation, no means of survival,
keep one out of the environment and culture
one got used to and almost thought second nature
and you will observe how like an addict
deprived of drugs the unemployed become...
irritable, meaning-deprived, nervous and
nothing in the discourse.
For put one out of a means of survival
in these times when we pick and pluck everything we need
not in farms but in supermarkets
put one out of a way of earning one's bread
and see how quickly down the hill one goes
like a rolling stone that gathers no moss... See
how even their most passionate interests fizzle out
when the comfort base and the firmament are
taken and concealed in some suburban garage
a pity that a man must become dependent
in order to eat and provide for the family
and a sense of one's worth, one's value
a sense of meaning
must all depend on a job and a pay
O how this modern workaday material and payaday
world has eaten into us
and we are but what our means are



(from The Migrant - notes of a newcomer (February 1997- July 1998))