Work Poems (218)

You freak me out!
You have no idea how hard it is to be around you
You told me how you punched your boyfriend in the face
Another girl talks gossip nonstop
This guy is taking weed and hails from Chicago
This other guy look like he just entered this country illegally
Why do you have a purple mowhawk?
You have tattoos all over your arms
What do they all mean?
I'm afraid to ask
I'm afraid you'll yell at me
I can't think
I can't breathe
I'm shell shocked
When will this work shift end so I can be away from all of you
Where I can be at peace
Where I can be safe
Some are nice
But they leave too soon
They are too few
I wish I didn't feel this way
I really do
But here I stand
Waiting for the bell to ring
It is 3:00 P.M.
Yeah!

I work
As I'm sure many people do
I have the day off to celebrate nine years of work at this company
My first question I had to ask myself
Were they nice to me?
Overall
I'm sick at the bad treatment I have recieved
But I could have said that at any time during my life
Except for the time I spent away from work from 2009 till early 2013
I did work at a ski resort for 24 days from November 2010 to February 2011
I did like it except I got paid an average of 1.25 when you figure in my expenses
10 dollars in gas a day, socks, boots, 7.00/hour taken out of my unemployment
I got to hug really pretty women when they need help off the lift
I got to eat anything I wanted to during my shift and drink free pop and hot cocoa
I was comfortable by myself sitting in a chair
I am thankful for the money, especially during the pandemic
I don't appreciate the masks which don't seem to be going away any time soon
I have over two years to go to beat my longest job, panwashing for 11.5 years

Backstabber got me bumped to the Weil
That word makes me feel like someone cut out my soul with a spoon
It never gets better
I just am resigned to a simple fact
People are mean
And they really enjoy screwing with you
I am certainly not alone
I have another I work with who is getting it too
She wouldn't even be working if not for her husband losing his job
He used to make over 150 grand a year till he was replaced by an Indian
The new employee would only need 70 grand
I don't know if the covid crisis was manufactured out of just meanness
Did China decide to ruin us?
Or did the governments of the world decide to wage a world war
A war against everybody
Everybody, that is that isn't a billionaire

Slip Sliding Away
Slip Sliding Away
You know the farther your destination
The more you're slip sliding away
I am a man
I drive to a small town
The road wears a snow and ice covered sheet like a thorny crown
I said Platteville
I live in fear
The wind is so overpowering I'm afraid I will disappear
slip sliding away
I said a good day ain't got no snow
A bad day is when there's snow and ice and wind
And think of accidents that might have been
You know the farther your destination the more you're slip sliding away

I saw this movie
Its name was Frozen
It really scared me you see
It is about the job I work
The worst thing you could do
Is leave someone up on the chairlift after you close
I think that it is a slacker job
Unless you work at the bottom
Those guys really earn their pay
I sit at the top and eat junk food all day
We get free pop, free cocoa too
I make 8.25 an hour
7.20 an hour after taxes
I spend 9 bucks in gas to get there
70 miles of driving that takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes
This is the best part of this job
I love to listen to music
Lady Gaga, 80's music, Black Eyed Peas
Did you see them on the SuperBowl?
So if you want to see a good movie to scare you good
See Frozen
Then go skiing right afterward!

I could've had religion
but I loved God too much
I could've fought for a living
in boxing rings and such

but I guess we are who we are
and we can't outrun ourselves
and the traits that make us rounded
are often stored in others shelves

I could've been kinder
to the girls that shared my bed
I couldve talked and listened
and let some inside in my head

but the world's an inverted question mark
pointing to the east
and the sum of every good I've done
is balanced on a beast

the more dangerous the obstacle
the more determined I am in tone
see I've always been a protector
to every soul I've known

for work I mind for money
the wealthy and great
the affluent and healthy
beneath the cloak of fate

at home i shroud my family
by planning and device
a shield of hard experience
deep roots untouched by ice

I couldve had a different life
I couldve been carefree
I couldve swam in lukewarm ways
but I chose the Atlantic sea

as cold as knives each morning
as salt it licks my scars
I see the dawn's reflection
in a billion floating stars

I went on a website where employees can rate their experience
Working for a company
The employee can rate their job from one star to five stars
I looked up Melaleuca, a company that sells bathroom, laundry, and health foods
Another was McDonalds that sells Happy Meals, one dollar sodas, and burgers
Cummins, is where I work, which sells engines, mufflers, and metal parts
Piggly Wiggly is a grocery chain that sells milk, donuts, and cheese curds
The highest score went to Melaleuca with an average over 30 reviews of 4
The second place went to McDonalds with an average of 3.9
The third place went to where I work at, Cummins, with an average of 3.8
The last place went to Piggly Wiggly with an average of 3.3
I have worked as a detassler of corn, packager of Swiss cheese
Developing photos in a photo lab, washing dishes, making burgers
Washing pots and pans, making Brie and Feta cheese, shipping bacon and ham
Mowing grass, picking up aluminum cans, and making mufflers
Helping skiers and snowboarders on the chair lift
Which was my favorite? Helping the people at Chestnut Mountain
Because the girls were pretty and positive, I sat most of the time
And I got to eat whatever I wanted and drink free Mt Dew and Hot Coco
My least favorite was Making Brie and Feta cheese
Because the work was hard and sweaty
And the people were mean backstabbers
I made minimum wage at my favorite job
I made one dollar more an hour at my least favorite job

There are so many who have come and gone through the years
Some were nice to be around, most were not
I'm super shy, so that sure doesn't help to foster a good time for me
I really wish I had gotten a job long ago where it was just me, myself, and I
But still I have the memories of these people, and that is something
The guy from Hardee's went golfing with me in 1988
The girl from Hardee's went out with me on a date
The girl from d*ck's got me, thank god she wasn't late
The teacher from Cassville made me a meal
The guy from Peru at the cheese plant in Belmont talked about potatoes with zeal
The young man from Fiji at the freezer plant in East Dubuque like my music a lot
The guy from South America at the muffler shop in Mineral Point was nice
The women at Chestnut in Galena were so pretty they would melt January ice
I could talk about the rest who weren't so well
But for now all I can say is...
They can just go to HELL!

a white cloud of teeth
approaches
looks..
and reconsiders

02:03
at the nightclub
a confrontation
I work the door

a struggle
we trade
I remove
the bigger man

he sees
his own blood
my squat silhouette
heavy goatee

"you are just
a psychotic walrus..! "
shouts he
from kerbside chamfered bivouac

guffaws
from staff
onlookers
bystanders


nickname..
tattoo

Soaked in sweat
My head feels like it has been boiled like an egg
I have diarrhea
I don't care any more about this job
It is supposed to be better than this
You have air conditioning for the managers
But they don't want to share it with the workers
I wonder how the sweat shops across the world are doing in this weather
If you work for one of these places you are at the mercy of mother nature
When it is not June, July, or August, you do ok
But this is the time when you are tested
How much crap can I put up with?
But still I am glad I make more than Vietnamese workers
Who only make 2.50 dollars a day