Colour-coded lists
with satisfying check marks
Tally for self-worth score
Free time is a dead wasteland
Work compulsion conquers all
Work is my saviour
Proof that I have use
Grateful for the gift
of structured daily toil
I don’t need a break
I am far too strong
I am made to stand
in any roaring storm
Endlessly on point
I cannot relax
Maybe I should take
a class in calming down
Another degree
Major in stillness
Minor in poems,
music, walks and gardens
What happens to me
While I do ‘leisure’?
What will I be worth
when I take time for me?
When days are rough at work, and heat is high
My self-esteem is carried by a role
To prove each working day that I am fine
And value comes from actions to assist
At frantic pace that slowly dents my soul
Beware when job and self strong-overlap
Identity is blank beyond my job
Then molehills swell to snowy mountain range
Allotments to sheep stations in my mind
And working day and night a sleeve-worn slog
Befogged in role, befuddled in self-worth
In muddled shame, obscured by guilt and fear
With added slow fatigue and hopelessness
And where do your needs end, and mine begin?
All rules of world and life become unclear
Learn to take time off
Negotiate with myself
New type of self-worth
Creative time, open field
Discovery nurtures all
Nov 23, 2024
Nov 23, 2024 at 1:26 AM UTC
Colour-coded lists
with satisfying check marks
Tally for self-worth score
Free time is a dead wasteland
Work compulsion conquers all
Work is my saviour
Proof that I have use
Grateful for the gift
of structured daily toil
I don’t need a break
I am far too strong
I am made to stand
in any roaring storm
Endlessly on point
I cannot relax
Maybe I should take
a class in calming down
Another degree
Major in stillness
Minor in poems,
music, walks and gardens
What happens to me
While I do ‘leisure’?
What will I be worth
when I take time for me?
When days are rough at work, and heat is high
My self-esteem is carried by a role
To prove each working day that I am fine
And value comes from actions to assist
At frantic pace that slowly dents my soul
Beware when job and self strong-overlap
Identity is blank beyond my job
Then molehills swell to snowy mountain range
Allotments to sheep stations in my mind
And working day and night a sleeve-worn slog
Befogged in role, befuddled in self-worth
In muddled shame, obscured by guilt and fear
With added slow fatigue and hopelessness
And where do your needs end, and mine begin?
All rules of world and life become unclear
Learn to take time off
Negotiate with myself
New type of self-worth
Creative time, open field
Discovery nurtures all
©2024
BLT Webster’s Word of the Day challenge (negotiate) date 23rd November 2024. To negotiate is to discuss something formally in order to make an agreement.
