Poetry

Worker Evolution

Who emerges from Lascaux Cave

into the heavy gray warehouse gloom, picking, and packing

                                                          

Who rests on Buddha’s belly, immersed in Oooommm,

is whisked away to airless Cambodian garment factory

                                                    

Who plowed and tilled wheat fields with her four daughters and seven sons,

sits at a computer administering payrolls and answering emails

                                                    

Who sold wares, exchanging endless banter with merchant neighbors

is a robotics firm manager espousing a dystopian future

                                                    

Who picked wild wheat and berries on Hilly Flanks,

emerges as a corporate executive, sculpting data for shareholders

                                                    

Who lolled in men’s houses awaiting bison hunts,

is trapped in a cubicle forest, hearing hoofbeats race across keyboards

                                                    

Who island-hopped throughout Polynesia on sturdy sea canoe,

assists automation pilot a Delta jet

                                                    

Who’d been the most obedient peasant to manor lord

emerges as the office manager’s yes man

                                                    

Who was an early follower of Muhammad, went on hijra to Yathrib,

sits as a bank teller, ‘neath security cameras’ perpetual gaze

                                                    

Who farmed a small plot in rural, southwest, medieval China,

is a New York City cabbie, cursing drivers and pedestrians for good measure

                                                    

Who fought early English incursions as Irish chieftain,

awakens to find herself transporting euro-replete bags in an armored car

                                                    

Who had prophetic dreams as ancient Chaldean fortune-teller

is a homeless teen, napping on street’s edge, wrapping herself, caterpillar-like, in tattered clothes

                                                    

~Peter Crowley

Melrose, Massachusetts, USA

One Comment

  1. Tabassum Tahmina Shagufta Hussein

    So true.
    Regards,
    Sincerely