076 - Match 16 2024 - Life in the Sandwich factory

life in the sandwich factory ain’t so bad
the work is long, but I make my daily bread
the conditions are foul, but I cannot feel sad
splitting other men’s loaves, watching butter spread

watching robots peeling slices of the ham
and the rubber cheese flopping down to the slice
outside here it’s misery, get what one can
for the pay, and the heat, it’s my sacrifice

life in the sandwich factory is just that:
life in the sense that I am still living here
with nothing to hope for, I choose to stand pat
counting off my days, till my days disappear

068 - March 08 2024 - The Cage

the invisible bars of this golden jail
test me immensely, they bore me without end
I can hear liberation’s soft, distant call,
but strain at the cage and the bars will not bend

I lack nothing; and indeed they say I’m free
to roam as I please, and consort as I suit
no guard’s pikes would lower, if I sought to flee,
but my base circumstance I could not permute

this is, by my birth, an unchangeable fact
the past, like a caravan, follows my path
howsoever we range, we find ourselves back
in a well-paced cell, doing time unto death