#unemployed
I spend my days lying down,
that being the bed, a chair, or the couch,
because money is important,
because I am an Earth stellium,
because I need to feel comfort.
From the autumnal yard in a rainy October,
I had a Gizmo, a cup of coffee, and a cigarette.
A senior professional, mind you,
smoking and crying, toothless and poor.
For I lack fire signs, being no one’s threat,
keeping it all inside while awfully sober.
From the autumnal yard in a rainy October,
I have those I love less than a kilometre away,
my sister in Christ, and a new home with my man.
He is also an Earth stellium and reads me like a book,
eats me like a pastry, drinks me like soup.
From the newly rainy apartment in a rented October,
I was walking on eggshells, crying for help.
“You’re on your own, kid” as his whelp coiled in sadness;
no change from his end, no surprises for me.
Once, in a hospital bed, he declared,
“My life will move on four months after you’re gone,”
he was not joking about it, a man of his word!
A father to many, a memory blurred.
Apr 29
Apr 29, 2026 at 3:55 PM UTC
Probably at a strange, helpless stage in life,
Trying hard to mend the strife.
Feels like being lost in a cage,
With a heart yielding unlimited rage.
Lost in oblivion, starting to self-doubt,
Wondering: am I chasing clout?
So I throw up my fist,
In a hope to comprehend life’s gist.
Talk to me in signs and prayers,
So I know my paths are aligned and I can understand the layers.
~RitzWrites 🌹
Apr 29
Apr 29, 2026 at 10:01 AM UTC
Nineteen and a half.
No job to reflect my adolescent prospects.
The prospects in question cannot be a part of my nationalistic expenses. But worry me to carry my heavier body through Obāchan’s home.
I react like nerves
with every sense I retract the thoughts
The ones I am desperate to share
“This is why I don’t hang out with them often,” to be forgotten,
my relationships turn rotten.
Yet the skin still gleams as if the flesh is fresh.
Is this me? Is this luck?
The boss blames the worker, the worker blames his wife, the wife blames the children and I blame them all.
The screen hits my face with strength
under covers to be undercover.
Poison is my delusion and my mind plays illusions that I am right.
I’ve lost my hair tie.
Jul 7, 2025
Jul 7, 2025 at 1:44 AM UTC
Once I went out to seek for a new job.
Only to find out I came home (afterwards) completely mad!
Jul 19, 2020
Jul 19, 2020 at 5:18 PM UTC
It has been
a long time
since I worked.
I don't miss
doing the work
or waking up at 4 AM,
But I do
miss the taste
of a well earned beer.
May 22, 2020
May 22, 2020 at 9:52 PM UTC
The government’s up early in the morning
hours before my dreams said their last words
~~I wiped off the cosmos from my consciousness~~
our leaders are up, digging for mechanical gold
that sweet fuel for the machines and their automated wealth
today, their shovels disrupt Alaskan wildlife refuges
tomorrow, your backyard
but I’m waking up way later, following the sunrise as an unemployed, unashamed, unresolved and un-unified whole, unpredictable, unfitting man with a wallet
full of poems
packed tighter than an Earth with twice our population
yet still writing
without hesitation
still drifting in and out of your perception
in and out of adjacent trains
stumbling over career paths
until I land on my face and look up
wiping the gravel off hazy eyelids to see the road
and then footsteps become moments
which become monuments upon which I build a future unseen
one day,
we will all be free.
Oct 18, 2019
Oct 18, 2019 at 8:09 PM UTC
Holidays are a falsehood we must endure
Lulling us into a sense of freedom that
We can never own, like the soldier from
His barracks or the prisoner his cell,
We are all afraid of our liberty, needing
Monotony in our lives to occupy the hours
Between waking and finally coming to rest
Again, yearning for the courage to escape
But lacking energy or initiative to act,
If ever our chains are cut we become unemployed
We lose our identity pulled down by responsibility
For rent, food, bills, our social commitments,
Turn tail and run, from the very door that
We are so afraid to open.
Jul 2, 2019
Jul 2, 2019 at 6:53 PM UTC
Ticket, Ticket Everywhere
Money, Money Everywhere
Everything is Reserved
For the Money makers and Rich
Want to ride in a Bus, Car or Taxi
Or Travel in Ship, Train or Aeroplane
Use your brain, my dear
Please shell out some money
Oh Sorry, You dropped that ugly idea
Then what you are going to go?
Going to Circus or to watch a film
Want to go to a Book fair or a fete
Still have to Shell out some Money
It's not that funny, O' Honey
It's Business, Serious Business
Oh No, You can't even go to Public Park
Or the River bank either
Oh want to use Public Toilets
Do you think it's free?
No my dear, just Pay and Use
You need some Food, Nice Cold drink
Or want to sip just a glass of plain water
Pay Some Money, Money and Money
Money is the religion and the faith
Need a Pen to write your pain
Again I have to ask for Money
We Money monger are the rules
You Un-employed are the problem
Either pay or perish, that’s a simple rule
That’s a golden Rule, Follow it
Don't try to break it. If you do
I bet, you will fail and fall in jail
Feb 24, 2019
Feb 24, 2019 at 10:44 AM UTC
A job for life,
that's what was advertised.
But I was just a penny in the slot.
Mine wasn't as shinny as the others.
Even though I was on top of my work.
Just because I didn't shine up to those above me.
Ok, I wasn't the silver coin, I wasn't even bronze.
But they tainted me, because I wasn't
the right side of a flipped coin.
And just like that I was the penny in the poor box..
Why was I of less worth than those
that never excelled..
I never put a word wrong.
never gargling *****
sniffing the cheeks of brown refuse.
But still I'm in the food bank,
like Oliver,
Can I have some more sir...
I'll never delve to the depravity of others..
feeding glutinous egos..
They can starve, I'll find a worth among
the wasted, and show that I'm more than
what's needed.
I have worth..
But for now I'll be on the bread line,
cooking my own..
And even though now I've not risen,
I'll show what time cooks..
I'm more than my last resamay..
I 'll never understand where quality of slavery
means I'm less of worth...
Jan 12, 2019
Jan 12, 2019 at 3:55 PM UTC
i think
i've preached a great deal about setting yourself free
and going for your dreams
but, ****
i may actually be
left behind by everyone else
i've definitely used up all of my
excuses
Apr 1, 2018
Apr 1, 2018 at 1:47 AM UTC
Doom myself to mediocrity,
Doom myself for good.
Raise myself to excellence,
Sacrifice my good.
Try to make a difference,
Gladly - if I could.
Is all that’s left to settle?
I won’t accept it though I should.
Feb 22, 2018
Feb 22, 2018 at 7:19 PM UTC
There was a big heart that beat steadily in the name of duty
It beat strongly in the name of love
It beat for years beyond expectations
Until the evil crows descended
First they took a little nibble here and there
It must have tasted good
For they started taking bigger bites
Restricting the rhythm of the beating
A new flight landed to join the feast
And there was a year long frenzy
Soon there was nothing left but scraps
Pulsing weakly, yet refusing to die
So they got the elephant in the room
To stomp across it several times
And that worked just the way they hoped
What was left was scraped up off the floor
And thrown out with the garbage.
ljm
Nov 29, 2017
Nov 29, 2017 at 7:24 AM UTC
"You wasting time being productive again"
(That wasn't a question)
Of course I am
"No, I am not"
(That was a joke)
I'm much more sofisticated
"Love me"
(I'm trying)
You spelled sophisticated wrong in you head I'm sure
"have a good day at work"
"Have a good day not being non-productively busy"
Feb 15, 2017
Feb 15, 2017 at 1:48 PM UTC
*Being unemployed is like….
Being stuck in a hole in the ground
with a broken leg and no cell phone,
while surrounded all on sides by people who ignore
your very existence,
or treat you as if you are less than…. well…anything.
Their silhouettes casting quickly passing shadows
on the concrete around you.
No one offering you a hand.
Each time you reach out for help
you are rejected coolly and professionally.
No one wants a failure, but they also don’t
want the responsibility of helping to create a success.
The ones who do reach out for you,
don’t really care about your success or well-being.
They see a quick buck,
easy to replace or move past,
should you realize you are worth more than their
verbal abuse and manipulation.
No one wants a self-valuing person either.
They don’t even want a human,
with thoughts
emotions
and memories.
All hiring businesses want, is a robot to do their every bidding with no complaints,
no questions asked,
even if that person’s health or sanity is on the line.
Or even their life.
In a world created by ourselves, we are unimportant.*
Mar 21, 2016
Mar 21, 2016 at 12:07 AM UTC
I sleep in my cardboard cottage
That is my current job.
I keep it neat and clean as I can
I am not a slob.
I have my own place staked out
Everyone knows it’s mine.
It keeps the wind off as I doze.
It isn’t perfect but it’s fine.
Part of my job these days is easy;
I set out a cup and sing.
It doesn’t make me a million
But it is something.
When the weather warrants it
I sleep in the park
In the bright warm sunshine;
Stay awake in the dark.
It seems the citizens and cops
All leave me alone
Even though they still talk to me
With condescending tone,
Tsking at my laziness in general
Give the charity buck
Or maybe a quarter when they see
Since I’m down on my luck.
There’s this guy Hay Soose
But he spells it Jesus.
He could spell it that way
If he so pleases
But that don’t keep him dry
Whenever it rains
And it doesn’t stave most of the
Deep arthritic pains
From sleeping under cardboard
As his only roof.
Watch him shiver in winter if
You want some proof.
People have gotten to know me
As I’m here every day.
Some of the even come by with
Nice words to say.
And, I am used to the noise here;
The horns and the noise
Of the workaday world of these folks;
These grownup girls and boys.
Some tell me to go find some work,
I don’t get mad and shout.
I understand they have some hostilities
They have yet to work out.
Some of my neighbors here in cardboard
Dwell here because they
Can’t seem to work life out for themselves
In any other way.
People fire them from any employment
Because they act weird.
Some refuse to bathe or maybe it is
They refuse to cut their beard.
As for me I have had enough of it all;
The rattle and the hum.
I know society has a lot to offer but
I already had some.
Jan 30, 2016
Jan 30, 2016 at 2:51 PM UTC
Prepare for battle, rally the troops.
Don't test someone with nothing to lose.
That's just my advice, you'll do as you choose.
Don't be sad to see go the people you've used.
You set off the bomb that you should have diffused.
Please just don't speak; we don't want an excuse.
Nov 13, 2015
Nov 13, 2015 at 12:08 AM UTC
Curled under blankets
with the shades pulled tight,
I'm hoping for rain
so I can't witness the beauty
of the summer day.
I think I hate it here but I don't know.
I find myself wondering why I had to leave.
I wish I was on the wind-shorn coast of Kilcar,
tasting garlic flavored seaweed and drinking tea
on the bluff after a long day of harvesting.
Oct 13, 2015
Oct 13, 2015 at 5:19 PM UTC
I see a job around the corner
Gotta keep busy while I survive
In the country where all the inexperienced get no jobs
If they hire me, then hire me as an IT worker. No need to worry
I expect replies very soon.
There’s a job around the corner, any day
Trying to keep my CV and letter together. No one dies jobless anyway
Struggling and striving, my destiny is to work
Keep myself near the phone, no falsehood in my words.
In a ball of confusion, I’m thinking about my daddy
Working harder than anyone else, he really shouldn’t have to
Family separated, Brothers and sister can’t help me
Got me stressing with my phone, it is not healthy
Am I **** Tell me the truth
I’m looking for jobs, ready to work
Running out of money and my mind can’t take the stress, how’s my health?
Makes me feel useless, but I see a job around the corner
Dec 17, 2014
Dec 17, 2014 at 10:08 PM UTC
Machine ground days
Somehow survived by clinging to precarious plans
Die for those.
For proles are stuck in a televised gleam
but I’m barred from distractions
I’m a man of action
Spring healing:
I found a new hope to get through the day
It has a name and it’s you
Workday: animistic curses
against people and their systems and products
except animals would escape forever
as soon as they open the cage
but we stay
The beastly gnashings of overworked merchandisers
for invisible self pocket stuffers
The competition's getting to us, comrades
I feel swindled out of my labor
I was pregnant
but they sold my child before
I woke up
Addressing the solipsism of my rehab circle:
I’m Kagey, and my life is hazy
but, blunted or no, let’s get this clear:
don’t trust your senses
and that goes for all my human peers
Body is a cage full of defenses
Still, I’m suspicious of reality
whether it’s façade society
or the wooden chair in front of me
Still, I enjoy the virtual scenery
I ain’t talking about on the T.V. or phone screen
I mean the willows, buildings, and faces
But all these mushy green acres are fakers
blobs without our eyesight
Still tho,
me and the universe are tight.
Sep 2, 2014
Sep 2, 2014 at 8:00 AM UTC
You must register with an employment agency,
he said through a muffled yawn, to defer
your studnet loan payments for the next six months.
But don't worry, he continued, clearing his
throat and sipping what I presumed was stale coffee,
you don't have to accept any jobs that you're offered.
Jun 1, 2014
Jun 1, 2014 at 2:17 PM UTC
I am on a coastline.
All of my treasure has become
everyone else’s garbage or less.
Today I lost my job.
Everyone lost their job.
Shop closed down.
Froze my *** off
carrying these guitars
back home.
There is an island out in the sea.
I’m all alone there tonight
wondering if it gets colder than this.
Apr 6, 2014
Apr 6, 2014 at 4:44 AM UTC