World Morning Star
The Employed Poor — Martin Hayes
they have a car a job with no contract they work for a company that has a zero-tolerance policy on sick days and non-attendance they have a flat with heating and food they have a bottle of wine of a n
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they have a car a job with no contract they work for a company that hasa zero-tolerance policy on sick days and non-attendance they have aflat with heating and food they have a bottle of wine of a nightthey cook a pasta dinner for their two kids they try to buy theirkids new clothes and a mobile phone but it’s never the rightones always 2 or 3 generations behind they are healthy butnervous strong but fragile they have nothing in theirhands or tucked away under their beds theyare only one withheld monthly pay chequeaway from disaster one boss’s decisionaway from hunger one unfortunateaccident away from annihilationone unplanned bill away fromtipping point one illnessaway from seeing thewhole edifice oftheir lives cometumbling downwith no onearound tohelp putany of itbacktogetheragain.
Martin Hayes was born in 1966 and has worked in the courier industry for over 35 years. This poem is from The Things Our Hands Once Stood For (2018).
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