Workers - True Strength Of Nations (Labor Day Poem) Poem by Bernedita Rosinha Pinto

Some by daily wages work
to earn their livelihood,
some as professionals
engage themselves
as doctors round the clock
to save lives and treat the sick;
As each one chooses his hours
of work and rest, energy and zest;
some as engineers indulge in building
those bridges across the rivers,
while laborers get employed
to carry those pails of cement,
sometimes engaging themselves
manually in digging roads
though sometimes machines are involved
yet human labor a must
to operate those back-hoes,
those fork-lifts
as tirelessly those workers go on
though thirsty and hungry they feel;
no one acknowledges their efforts
except for the salaries they are offered;
and as those huge skyscrapers,
those huge bridges get built
and are ready for use
the construction workers
are forgotten as just workers
though over-time they have worked
and burnt their skin and fore-heads
under that scorching sun-light.
Sometimes men pack their bags
and rush to Gulf countries
thinking of better prospects
imagining better earnings
will help them flourish
but they fail to realize
besides losing proximity
to their families for years
they loose their own exuberance
due to long hours of work and
the constant dedication
the site-supervisor insists from them;
and though sometimes man
in his own country lives and works,
need and necessity makes him
want to take up jobs to gain prosperity
right at his door-step,
as a farmer he engages
menfolk, womenfolk to help him
sow and harvest the crops on his own farm;
though poor or rich he may be
it does not make him any less of a boss
he is still their paymaster
and all his workmen have to stand
and collect their daily wages
besides carrying their own lunch boxes
and sipping water from public taps
to quench their thirst without complaining;
still nothing differs when
the pursuit to have money in hand
tempts students to work in restaurants
as waiters and helpers;
how it hurts to see little boys getting
exploited when they are engaged
in child-labor and deprived
of education and healthy growing;
finally there is no tomorrow
of content and sustenance
if men by work doesn't progress
and though men gets exhausted
men gets exploited by employers,
nothing changes the attitude
of those who choose to work
under any circumstances,
nothing changes the attitude
of those who want to be the masters
and make the employees
work and serve them profitably;
inspite of all the laws and outcrys
demanding sympathetic and kind interaction,
between those who work and those who pay,
mutually both must benefit
mutually both must respect and agree
that 'eight hours of work' is all
that is truthfully the best
for each other's cordial
existence, survival and dignity as test.