A DOLLAR A DAY

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A good day?
That’s a dollar that day.
Menial jobs?
Those are my forte…
Dish washing
Picking cotton
Street hawking
And a host of others.


I’m your everyday jack of all trades,
I possess many a skill
But none enough to put me in a shiny suit,
A Mercedes,
A mansion
And certainly not in an office complex.


Yes,
I have been in several offices
But only after dark,
When lights go out,
I show up when everyone else has left.
Calm down, I’m no thief.
I empty the waste bins,
Clean tables,
Basically,
I’m a cleanup crew,
I clean up after others,
I’m busy at work when the man and his
Shiny suit have called it a day,
They do the white collar beat,
I work the blue collar gig.


I have been in several mansions too,
But only on the grounds,
The common areas and
Once in a while by the pool
Yes, I have been by the pool,
But not in a swimsuit,
Rather in long flowing blue overalls,
Cleaning the resting chairs,
Draining the pool,
And fishing out the leaves,
If only those leaves would fall more often,
That would be excuse enough for me to
Hang around the pool more often.


In such places I turn up in the broad of day
Yet I remain invisible
For the master bids me so,
He makes the rules,
I embrace the rules,
That’s how we communicate,
But on some days
As the smell of roasted chicken wafts through the air,
I fight the urge to go bursting into the master’s kitchen,
Grab a drumstick and rush back out,
Not for the want of roasted chicken,
Certainly not,
I hear those things make you fat anyway,
But in hope that my grumbling tummy
Would quiet down so I can go about my duties,
A grumbling tummy breeds dissenting hands
And wandering minds.


I have been in more hotels than you,
No arguments there, I’ll beat you 10 to 1.
I’m no braggart,
I only speak the truth,
You just find my truth a tough swallow.
How come, you ask,
To clean bathrooms and change sheets, silly.
What were you thinking?
Me in a robe, glass of champagne in hand?
Or perhaps at a buffet in a tailcoat or a ball gown?


Whew!!!!
Those are too rich for my blood,
What folks spend in such places
Could last me more than a month.
The smell of new sheets and perfume
Sometimes makes me want to lie on the marble floor
But I’m afraid that may upset the manager.
I just might end up losing my job.


Maybe someday,
When you happen to be around,
I’ll treat you to filing desks and computers in an office,
Swimming pools and landscaping of a mansion
Or perhaps shiny marble floors and well pressed sheets,
But I have to go now,
Else I just might fail make a dollar today,
That would be the death of me today,
For I live a dollar a day.
Not my choice anyway,
My life just seems to swing that way.