LABOR POEM OF THE WEEK: Working Class Blues
Chris Garlock | Published on 4/11/2025
Working Class Blues
You have to work all
week to pay for the
concession of being
nickel and dimed, man-
ufacturing thoughts of
violence for above and
beyond simply punching
some goddamed time-
clock sixty hours
a week, dying to
live paycheck to paycheck,
making products you'll
never manage to afford,
minimum wage to keep
a world moving, though
you're sure it would spin
around just fine without
you, just one more
easily replaceable worker --
bee slaving for a lost
colony and nothing seems
to soothe the sting of
knowing that, even making
$20 an hour flipping burgers,
your lot in life would be
to go to bed hungry.
Dan Grote, Waymart PA, in The Blue Collar Review, from Partisan Press