Slavin’ Away

Every day just like clockwork you wake up as early as 4 am to get an arm in.
Most days you spend looking for any advantage to just keep you afloat, to keep you in contention because a million others crave to be you in this ill-riddled reality.
The corporate man demands everything from you. He demands the precious family time to that extra thirty minutes of sleep worth three hours your body sorely craves for a full tank.
Unashamedly, he takes and takes and takes, a succubus of your lifeforce unyielding in sinking its long dangly tentacles into every orifice.
He continues unflinchingly in receiving whatever riposte as a fight back you manage to muster.
Irritatingly relentless in dutifully discharging his work of bleeding you dry.
“Dauntless in the face of adversity”,  is the tune he hums as he hacks away at your very being.
Slavin’ away you must, just to hold on.

Nothing echoes your need to be financially buoyant than seeing men functioning like hypnotized cogs in a wheel rhythmic in motion and operation. These men live the hustle and bustle lifestyle of the streets like seasoned waiters working the tables on a packed Friday night, a choreography in its own right that begs investigation. This is capitalism captured in its most rife period.
You observe different walks of life especially at that odd hour in the morning heave and sigh with a chorus of chuckles thrown into the mix almost every single day.
Etched on their faces, is the cutthroat reality they face. The parched looks you behold mirror the conditions they long to raze.
“The morning fracas is only begun”, you tell yourself as you turn away from the battle-hardened visages that gnaw at your efforts to win; an unsavoury reminder to push your limits all the while slavin’ away.

A trip toward your desk brings unwanted surprises. You take a look at the backlog of last week’s work and it is a hostile indication of this awful world, an exaggeration you might say but the truth nonetheless.
Five minutes into this established routine comes the Jezebel of this Tartarus.
For what reason are you her recent object of fascination? The penultimate question you asked yourself when you stepped into this money-laden realm. It followed with no candid answer. Clueless is your current disposition.
You found yourself lost in thought, maybe just maybe it could be because your world is caving in right before your eyes as you weigh your burdensome fiscal responsibilities.
Could it also be that just like how every homeowner or master is of his domain, she strives first to gain your attention through persuasion and perversion as a way to stamp her authority?
No doubt, she is bold in her contrived approach for many have succumbed to her wiles as she employed Mesmer’s tact to achieve what she set out to do; destroy lives soiled with debt and avarice.

This you know and have seen happen on numerous
occasions. Her call is the sweetest amongst any of the known sirens. Her lure is so pure it corrupts the supposed incorruptible paralyzing those who ventured to dip in her coffers and sample her alluring wares.
“Jailed! Incarcerated for embezzling, shady deals gone bad, parishioner caught red-handed” is the aftermath as she picks her next meal.
The words of a Chinese gondolier you met on your travels, echo as you brace for her volley of ordeals.

” Yet another battle in this war waged, you must fight
Freeing yourself you must, to escape this cage that is beyond sight”

Long day ahead, it’s only thirty-something minutes into the morning yet again you’re slavin’ away.