PUNK POETRY: Sweat by Paul Smith

Sweat

 

There should be a fraternity

for all who sweat

sweat without recompense

for those who say

‘virtue is its own reward’

so is sweat

but not the kind that is a camp-follower

behind the wagon train of fame

and shoe contracts

the single mom sweats

the man in blue sweats each time

a call goes out from Englewood

the flagger sweats 

when Dispatch calls to cancel

her nightshift

due to rain

sweat bonds us

but we don’t feel it

because we are busy sweating

‘I sweat, therefore I am’

is what Descartes should have said

but he didn’t

because he’s not in the brotherhood

of pieceworkers

of rodbusters

of greasemonkeys

sharecroppers

the journeymen and apprentices

in the fellowship of perspiration

--Paul Smith