Union Songs

We own only our labour power

A Poem by Jim Sharp©2009 Jim Sharp

We own only our labour power
slaughter men, boners & slicers
whereat well honed knife skills
be embedded in our learnt brainwork’s

work-a-day's befall the auto cue onslaught
hands, arms & embedded skills consort apace
while the machines smoothly grind & droned on

to over come "the shit on the liver bile"
one drifts into la-la land dreams
about sensual pleasure liaisons

yet! nowt endures not muscle power
certainly not our ligamentous bonds
even the mighty titanium wears away

all the same time! wearying beef chains
mean-spirited monotonous droning machines
set a barbarous pace until the shift end's

tcartilage betwixt joints & discs wears &
crystallizes without let while aging graciously
be nowt but! a will-of-the–wisp pipe dream

meat workers beguiled out of our
labour power & time; for-a- lifetime
of wearying blood & guts labour

handing down acutely owed wrecked
meat workers as well as the cruel terror
of their paupers burial

"cold meat" without victuals to share
nothingness come our wakes
but! the empty pocket blues

psyched psyches &
comrades livings' memories
beyond our demice

Notes

Many thanks to Jim Sharp for permission to add this poem to the Union Songs collection.

Jim writes:
'g'day mark
here's a poem about the work-a-day grind of meatworkers you might like consider for union poem/songs.
jim
p.s. i had a stroke 8 months ago & thereafter wrote a bunch of languid/melancholic poems. this one below is one wrote after i started to come out of that very dark tunnel.'

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union songs..........a selection by mark gregory