Saturday, 16 March 2024

Paycheck (The Ballad of Workplace Psychosis)

 


I'll buy a hatchet with this paycheck

and on my first Monday back

I'll take it out and split the forehead

of that prat who parrots phrases

from the shit he sees on TV,

see his eyes light up completely 

for the first time in his life, 

before they shut down for the night

and switch to mental QVC. 


I'll pull the hatchet from his forehead

and I'll walk across the floor

while my fellow workers book it

(this is not what they're paid for)

until I find myself outside the room

with a poster by the door

proclaiming loudly END THE STIGMA,

acting like we're not the cause

of the very mental illness 


which has brought me to the door

that my Team Leader locked the second

she heard screaming on the floor

but which, I know, is made of cheap wood,

and cannot, for long, endure

repeated impact from my hatchet

‘til its handle hangs ajar

from the door it used to open

and I know the look of horror


that stains her eyes on seeing me

is something new to her:

wish I could say it was for me,

but I'm glad. It's good to share. 

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