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Guest Poet Darren Anderson


Working Stripes




Working Stripes

Whistles invade my peaceful slumber

Time to rise and pay my dues

So I imprison myself

Night is my courtyard

Worn bare by the passing hours


The sound belts for my electronic warden

For I cannot depend on society

Morally chained to labor’s wall

That in which I walk with bowed head

I must rest and replenish


As I rub the sleep from my mind.

For care or shelter

And watch the free sun rise and fall

For time is the barbed fence surrounding me

For energy is needed


December, 2001



Darren Anderson's questions:

1) Is the theme too obvious?, or does the reader get a strong image that, to this character, his work is a dreadful prison, and he is the warden.

2)Does the reader get a good mental image of this character and situation?

3)What kind of job does the character have? What does the reader feel towards this?



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