Today's Poem... Me as Prisoner

some days are stones

I missed contributing a poem yesterday... and almost missed one today! It's due to work. Again. Yesterday was a stressful day that just can't be described. And, if I did try to describe it, I'd be stressed all over again. So I won't.

I had one of my own poems planned today, but I remembered this one and dug it out of the big electronic box of poems I've published here and there on the internet. Despite a difficult time at my current job, I remember how I felt during this period of time. I'd dug myself out of career hell and was working for an employee benefits firm that paid half of what I make right now. The workers there resembled slave labor. It was one of those jobs I endured. And while, I may not have made the all the right job choices then, I have managed to resurrect my career and am hanging on thru all the workplace turmoil. So I can look at this poem now, look at what has transpired at work in the last month or so, and realize that, at least, I no longer feel like a....

PRISONER AT A DESK

The outrage of being here, tied
By bonds and deadlines not of my making
To this spot, for long hours,
Sense of obligation and satisfaction

When work completed.

Blah, blah, blah.
Prisoner at a desk, I’ll admit it.
Tied here by the need of rent and food
Of bills to pay and gas to buy.
And what, you ask would come if

Those earthly things were magically
Given to me, not obligations to pay...
(Perhaps a lottery win,
A treasure found,
A sugar daddy uncovered??? )

Well, when that happens,
And I don’t doubt that it will,
I’ll be at a desk by choice
And perhaps
The texture and feel of WHAT I do
And WHEN I do it, shall be my own.
No longer at someone’s bidding.
Content to have sense of accomplishment
Coupled with self-set deadlines and missions.

Prisoner at a desk?
Held by my own need to be
Someone and something I’ve grown accustomed to.


Quidrock 2005