alone and stolen, preserved for the night,

nothing renewed, nothing done right.

pensioned and planned, the road the way,

early retirement, last day.

office hours only, home after five,

up the ranks, no sleep, but alive.



bright face, new hired chance,

crisp gray suit, creased wool pants.

sign once on the bottom line,

forty-thousand for one year’s time.



we must work to live.

on minimum wage,

in maximum time.

paid to live,

for some other man’s dime.


taught to know,

what to ask:

to give thirty years

you’ll never have. 



standard of living: highest,

tears never cried: driest.



beginning gone well, good and bad.

papa, *****, mom and dad.



it’s a boy or a girl!

a real live birth: sterile and white

forty feet from earth.