Unapologetically Me

Non-Essential Workers  I know you felt, it the pain in your chest  When they told you go home put your feet up and rest Or at least that’s how you internalized it in your mind  As your world began to spin and you felt frozen in time  You know who you are and you know what you do  Somehow that phrase, essential worker, evoked a pain that lay deep down inside of you  It made you think that you were no longer needed  A word, unwanted uneed long ago seeded  Into you mind and into your soul  Telling you what to do, to be seen no matter what the toil  Making you climb up ladders seen and unseen  Making you smile hiding the pain as you sat with your team  They told you what you do wasn’t essential, but I promise that’s not what they said  That’s just a distortion of a long ago message you were feed If you take out of context you’ll find yourself in a muck  Moving hecticall...

I don’t want to go back to the way things where When I couldn’t even see a single star I don’t want to be lulled back to sleep and jump back on the hamster wheel of consumption and work that mask the pain and hurt that I feel I don’t want to go back to hectic mornings and dragging my kids out of bed Yelling and fussing while pulling a shirt over my head I don’t want to go back to breakfast on the run with no time to chew As we rush out the door putting on the other shoe I don’t want to go back to making sure they finished busy work that doesn’t teach them how to think While watching their creativity, innovation, and joy slowly, slowly sink Into a pit of despair as they conform into the little boxes and fit into the world I want them to be themselves and free my little boy and little girl I don’t want to go back to spending 10 minutes of my day engaged with the people I love And spending the rest of my time lock...