Where does the time go


Do you hate your job?
If so, there it is—
there you have it
that’s how you grow old
so terribly fast

Don’t know about you
but if I can’t find a job I love
or at the very least
not hate

I’d rather be poor
and a bum
with the occasional food insecurity

doesn’t work
for everyone

but it’s my trick
of stalling down time

much preferable to me
than mustering
a strength that decreases
in amount
day by day

every dawn
when that alarm clock
yanks me out of sleep
to face the beginning
of the shifts in a job
that slowly kills me

the audacity then of some—
middle aged and wondering
in horror almost—
where did the time go

is it really any wonder

five days a week
for most of your lives
you think—
let me get through this shift
through this day
and the next
and the next

and the next

people living
for the weekends

people living
for that paid holiday
once a year

is it really
any surprise
then

that you wake up
one morning
and you slowly
make your way
to your bathroom
to brush your teeth

and there’s an old man
staring back at you

wrinkled
saddened
asking you

how could you
do this to me

how could you
do this to us.