Arbeit Macht Frei

Work Shall Free You – Auschwitz Camp Motto

I really wasn’t ready to be retired at 50 for now I can see how work lent a real meaning to my life

Anyways, I got no savings for healthcare issues and my social security is fading like a union pension

So, I’m doing what I thought I always wanted to and it’s part-time, minimum wage with no benefits

I’m serving my community and I must ignore the fact that the good working folk take me for a fool

Giving back and paying it forward, it’s all on my stairway to eternal freedom in that promised heaven

Sure I was outsourced with no benes into a forced, early retirement from my real career, but so what

I overcame that costly, uninsured, depression-induced coronary to assume a voluntary leadership role

Maybe some of those still working snicker at me, but I, too, wake up early every day with lots to do

Got more time to spend with friends and family - It’s really too bad they’re all just too busy for me

Finally organized some household messes, the garage and really got my photo albums together

The wife’s still working and they’re having a tough time dislodging her, but they’ll win in the end

Always thought I hated my jobs but I see they were anchor points in my careening, out-of-focus life

Going to work got me out of the house, dried up the alcohol and cleansed my bleary guilt

The banks let me leverage my pitiful income stream with credit cards and liar home equity loans

But none of the cool ads are aimed at me now, just those nonstop, identical Ask your doctor abouts…

Though I pissed and moaned about work, it was really much more stable than my so-called family

No Sir, I aint bitter over being out on my ass with no savings, let alone even one single job interview

I see it’s just that the omnipotent free market has replaced off-shored careers with Wal*Mart McJobs

Anyways, I remain on the righteous path, comforted in a decaying poverty by my personal savior

Im not even counted among the unemployed since I finally stopped looking for those nonexistent jobs

Should be going back to school but I cant qualify for even more new loans at my age, with my debts

Learning to seek truth in the menial household tasks I always viewed as being so far beneath me

But the awful loneliness and fear arising from being left out of the work herd still tugs at my gut

Heard of one job that suited me to a tee but now they say I’ve just been out of work for too long

Arbeit Macht Frei, and yup, now I could find meaning shoveling mass graves, if they provided benefits

Thought about becoming a consultant but of course as an ordinary failure, my market is pretty small

Got a tight online career network going and my robo-resumes fill auto-emptied email inboxes daily

Staring down 30 years of increasing poverty and deteriorating health is now just my cross to bear

Swallowing Personal Responsibility for my unemployability keeps me quiet about entitlement cuts

I’m quite stimulated spending hours playing dodge-em phone tag with my many outsourced creditors

But I know in my exceptionist bones that God’s blessings to richer Americans will trickle down on me

Wishing I had the selfish vanity to pursue the steady, secure, artificial work of the career politician

Monday mornings I still feel like I need to be somewhere even though I always thought I hated it

So ashamed that I don’t need to save time, got no deadlines and that my schedule isn’t even full

Simply want to always be looking forward to all the lost weekends and forgotten holidays once again

Oh, for the joys of wasted commutes, wolfed fast food, crazy schedules and well-earned couch time