Labor Day

I have a job from 8 to 5

before a monitor and keyboard;

my phone rings with questions

because I am a knowledge worker.

"You have reached the desk of John Hutton;

he cannot come to the phone

because it is Labor Day weekend,

and you should not be calling anyway."

I have a job from 8 to 5

working for a legal fiction

whose title is not Ms. or Mr., but Corp.

who cannot lose more than was invested.

My boss has a job from 8 to 5  

going to meetings and signing timecards;

his phone rings with questions

because he is a manager.

In West Virginia there is coal beneath the ground

and miners walk beneath the ground

to mine the black rocks of fuel

that power factories, computers, and Ph.D. theses.

The miners struggled to organize,

went on strike for better wages

and better working conditions,

and formed human shields before the coal trucks.

In school the UAW organized the grad students

so that they protested in Sproul Plaza,

and I wondered if my TA would spot me in the early morning    rain

as I crossed the picket line to get to lecture

and grade me down for not supporting the union.

I have a job from 8 to 5

where we are not unionized,

but we have donuts on Fridays.

I have a job from 8 to 5;

I have heard of black lung disease.

I have a rubber wristpad against carpal tunnel syndrome,

and it is not the same.

John Hutton