The Work Ethic

(from ‘the Stone Street poems’ – 1976)

Sheltered for now from the rain
And weathered words
I bask in delightful boredom
Drinking cups of coffee or tea
It’s my rainy day way
Of working on words

There’s no minimum wage for poets
Yet like an army the metaphors march
To my caffeine cadence

Sometimes the work ethic
Rears its ugly head
That monstrous guilt I feel
When the Puritan inside me
Rants and raves
Ah...but that soon fades
And noontime passes
No lunch whistles or time clocks for me
Just some coffee or tea
Some paper....a pen...and me

- By Mark S. Foley

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