The Struggle
The struggle.
Just to keep warm.
The back breaking work.
Just to keep a roof over my head.
The minimum wage slave.
Or get locked in a cage.
With choices so grim.
Sometimes one must think outside the box.
A trade illegal by any other means.
But when comes to necessities.
It goes right out the window.
With the knowledge and know how.
We would all do something of which we shouldn't be proud.
What the courts say isn't what you believe.
With money it can be bought, but your conscience can not.
Guilt never goes away, it just sits their an rots.
Becomes a poisonous apple inside you.
The struggle.
Just to keep warm.
The back breaking work.
Just to keep a roof over my head.
The minimum wage slave.
Or get locked in a cage.
With choices so grim.
Sometimes one must think outside the box.
Talents so few.
Desires dwindling.
The candle melts away.
Their is a time limit.
Have I reach it yet?
I just don't know.
How could one?
I have no crystal ball.
I have no magic cauldron.
I have no special recipe.
I'm no Einstein.
He believed time viewing was theoretically possible.
I believe of the past most certainly.
But of the future I just don't know.
The struggle.
Just to keep warm.
The back breaking work.
Just to keep a roof over my head.
The minimum wage slave.
Or get locked in a cage.
With choices so grim.
Sometimes one must think outside the box.
A dedication to every one in the world.
No matter rich or poor.
We are all human.
We all have needs.
Let not lust or ambition to succeed turn into greed.
Lets lift each other up when we need help.
Lets not abandon someone for something ugly such as indifference.
Be proud of the rarity of our existence.
Realize life is precious.
No number should ever put upon it.
And know that these decision we make determine the outcome of the entire world.
No matter how powerless you feel.
No matter futile it seems.
Know you can make a difference.
The struggle.
Just to keep warm.
The back breaking work.
Just to keep a roof over my head.
The minimum wage slave.
Or get locked in a cage.
With choices so grim.
Sometimes one must think outside the box.
poem by Ace Of Black Hearts

Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
The national minimum wage has not been increased in 9 years. By year's end, 21 States across America will have a minimum wage exceeding the Federal minimum wage.
quote by Sherwood Boehlert

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You need to know that a member of Congress who refuses to allow the minimum wage to come up for a vote made more money during last year's one-month government shutdown than a minimum wage worker makes in an entire year.
quote by William Jefferson Clinton

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No family gets rich from earning the minimum wage. In fact, the current minimum wage does not even lift a family out of poverty.
quote by Jon Corzine

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It has now been over 7 years since Congress last raised the minimum wage to its current level of $5.15 per hour. Since that last increase, Congress's failure to adjust the wage for inflation has reduced the purchasing power of the minimum wage to record low levels.
quote by Jon Corzine

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Congress has not raised the minimum wage since 1997. The minimum wage is now at its lowest level in 50 years adjusted for inflation.
quote by Russ Carnahan

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I do not support raising the minimum wage, and the reason is as follows. When the minimum wage is raised, workers are priced out of the market. That is the economic reality that seems, at least so far, to be missing from this discussion.
quote by John Sununu

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Working-class Americans have waited too long, close to a decade in fact, for an increase in the minimum wage. This has been the second longest period without a pay raise since the Federal minimum wage law was first enacted in 1938.
quote by Bill Pascrell

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Breaking The Law
There I was completely wasting, out of work and down
All inside its so frustrating as I drift from town to town
Feel as though nobody cares if I live or die
So I might as well begin to put some action in my life
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
So much for the golden future, I cant even start
Ive had every promise broken, theres anger in my heart
You dont know what its like, you dont have a clue
If you did youd find yourselves doing the same thing too
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
You dont know what its like
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law
song performed by by Judas Priest

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Rape Of The Poor
working 32 hours a week,
minimum wage, no benefits...
to buy third world clothes
from minimum wage Walmart cashiers,
made by Asian children
in sweat shop conditions...
spend the change on
war raped, terror raped,
bomb raped, third world oil...
3.69 a gallon gasoline.
crinkled dollar bills...
'In God We Trust'!
poem by Eric Cockrell

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To The American People
common sense solutions:
tax the wealthy.
tax corporations and financial institutions.
put a tariff on imports.
go back to building things here.
get behind the American farmers.
grow as much of your own food as you can.
raise the minimum wage.
change from oil addiction to alternative fuels.
stop the damn wars.
feed every child!
give every child equal education opportunities.
stop prescribing narcotic pills like m & m's.
take money out of the courtrooms.
let anyone live here that works and contributes.
teach your children respect.
teach them to read.
teach them to work.
make health insurance a part of your taxes,
on a percentage basis where it's fair to all.
give everyone equal health care.
take care of the aged and the disabled.
but people that can work need to work!
fight for the environment for our children's sakes.
quit fighting over religion, politics, and sexual orientation.
restore human dignity by equal rights, equal justice.
stop judging, and start affirming.
pay politicians minimum wage!
clean up the street gangs and the prisons...
put prisoners to work, and educate them!
stop building bombs and armies,
and rebuild this country...
the roads, the cities, the factories...
put people back to work!
stop spraying crops with harmful chemicals
and feeding animals antibiotics
that are dangerous...
and pay teachers like they have the most
impotant job in the world...
they do!
teaching your children!
poem by Eric Cockrell

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Man Has To Struggle
(Van Morrison)
Man makes his money and they call him rich
Deep down inside he knows that life's still a bitch
Man tries to keep things but they're taken away
Man has to struggle all the live long day
Man has to sweat and toil his life filled with trouble
Man got to step and fetch it on the double
Man has to work so hard to make it all pay
Man has to struggle all the live long day
Man keeps on moving 'cos he can t keep still
Man has to set his goals and climb up the hill
Man sees the mountains and the deep blue sky
Man has to struggle till the day that he die
Well yes siree Bob them there's the breaks
That's how it is my friend don't make no mistake
Man has to take some action all of the time
Man by his nature's never satisfied
Man just can't vegetate no matter what they say
Man has to make it all the live long day
Man has to create karma that s the way that it is
Man has to keep on going way beyond his will
Man has to keep on being cos there s nothing else
And man just always has to go for himself
Take all the gurus when they meditate
Transcend the mundane into some altered state
You just might get there, but you'll have to pay
Man's got to struggle all the live tong day
Well yes siree now Bob them there's the breaks
That s how it is my friend don't make no mistake
Man has to watch the weather and the food that he eats
Man has to keep fit else he's prone to disease
No matter what he does there's stress every which way
Man has to struggle all the live long day
Man is in conflict with his natural self
Man has to suppress his own desires and instincts
Man has to work so hard to keep them at bay
Man has to struggle all the l
song performed by by Van Morrison

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Raising the minimum wage means raising the living wage - and that's good news for Ohio.
quote by Sherrod Brown

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Write Speak The Word
comments like imagine
that a grown man woman,
sits around writing poetry
all day biblically bites;
each should be working in a factory
on absolute minimum wage,
everyone should work in a factory
a Richie Rich analysis cage;
God casts storms in front of Jonah
swallows his escape route planned,
miraculously in a large fish bound
because prophet ran from his duty;
his God given duty to spread verse word
seed cast not wasted among flocks of birds,
God showed complete patience compassion
but God insists servants preach his word;
poem by Terence George Craddock

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At the current $5.15 an hour, the federal minimum wage has become a poverty wage. A full-time worker with one child lives below the official poverty line.
quote by Bernie Sanders

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Today a minimum wage earner has to work a day and a half just to pay for a full tank of gas. That is simply shameful.
quote by Bill Pascrell

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Today, the Federal minimum wage purchases less than it has at any point in the last 50 years. Let me repeat: The Federal minimum wage purchases less than it has at any point in the last 50 years.
quote by Alcee Hastings

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Inside A Cage
he is inside a cage
and he does not really want to be inside the cage forever
the cage however is different
it is not locked and no one guards it
he is free to go out and get in anytime
this cage of his choice
he wants to get out of this cage for good
he just can't
he loves to be caged somehow
despite the protest of his reason
he goes out to free himself but only after a while
he gets inside the cage again
in fact he is more inside it and locking himself in it even
he loves what this cage can provide him
his sense of privacy his taste for an enclosure
his genes his sense of wanting to be alone
his beloved prison where he keeps his sins
it is where his ecstasies are hatched and grown
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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One Chance
We have one chance.
One chance to get everything right.
We have one chance, one chance.
And if we're lucky we might.
My friends, my habits, my family,
they mean so much to me.
I just don't think that it's right.
I've seen so many ships sail in,
just to head back out again and go off sinking.
I'm just a box in a cage. I'm just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box, just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box, just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box, just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box in a cage.
Didn't mean to laugh, didn't know I had.
Didn't know the better part of what you said
cuz in your head you are not home.
Didn't get the joke. Didn't mean to poke another,
just to save myself
from some something something or another one.
Well walk home.
I'm just a box in a cage. I'm just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box, just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box, just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box, just a box in a cage.
I'm just a box in a cage.
We have one chance,
one chance to get everything right.
My friends, my habits, my family,
they mean so much to me.
I just don't think that it's right.
I've seen so many ships sail in,
just to head back out again and go off sinking.
song performed by by Modest Mouse

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Admiration... For Those Who Work!
i have a deep admiration
for the common working people
of the world...
having lived among them,
worked and sweated with them,
i sing their struggle!
farmers toiling day and night,
nurses pulling double shifts.
factory workers doing time and again,
carpenters and masons building.
black and white and all colors,
working their lives by faith.
and immigrants, often called illegal,
(though no human beings are illegal!) ...
who come here and work for whatever wage,
trying to build a dream for their families.
let us not forget women,
too often underpaid and treated as less...
truckdrivers, and those who work the docks,
steel workers, cooks, and trash collectors...
all leave me in awe...
there are many who cant work,
these should always be taken care of.
but the ones that could work if they would work,
who can work, and wont...
well... i have a problem there!
i was taught to work as a child...
taught respect, dignity, and honesty...
and so i believe, and so i live...
in admiration for those who work!
poem by Eric Cockrell

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A World That Makes You Wonder
There are people, mainly bosses
who get rid of the best
and replace them with the worst.
Hoping that the worst
are going to perform miracles,
but all they do is drag the firm down.
In education, the worst
are applauded and awarded
for wasting money
that should be used
for furthering education.
Bring it up to higher standards.
Yet if you work hard,
you are chastised for doing so.
The Government will bend over backwards
to help those who never want to work.
However, those who do work hard
normally end up on a minimum wage.
My conclusion to all this is,
well it is very simple.
They lazier you are,
the better thought of you are.
You will get all the praise and benefits.
Work hard and they will just use you
to do the work the lazy ones should do.
4 June 2008
poem by David Harris

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