Fed Up

I never asked for a trophy-

A partner with gratitude,

I did not aim to upset you, step on your shoes or undress your attitude

But I never thought the reward for my rise to your altitude,

All the stress I’ve been put through, for all of my hard honest efforts,

Three housekeepers in one with no team for the teamwork

Would consist of maggots swimming in a seedless dirt

Stabbed back in a sweat stained blue shirt with quiet knives hidden under middle aged skirts

You chronic manipulations

You tectonic flirts

Your ignorance masked beneath insecure scars that must still hurt-

Your confidence continuously placed in another cracked vase.

I’ve got a case of the Mondays every day

Little do you know I wouldn’t be here

Were it not for the well-maintained smiles I place on their wonderfully aged faces on a daily basis

The bond we share is pure homeostasis

There’s no bullshit running between the bases

So you bet your ungrateful asses I’m not gonna waste this

Your taste buds for the living are tasteless

How can your eyes be so blind to the energy that I gave to this place

Your attitude toward me so baseless

Can you not see the white in my platelets?

Or is it still hidden by the red flesh on your faces

When residents and their families come to you and say this:

Why are you working her so hard?

Why doesn’t she have any help,

You know good employees like her are hard to find,

She makes my dad so happy.

I love every sentence I share with them:

I love how Bobbie is so sweet and so nervous,

I love how Lucy is equally beautiful and frail,

I love how Mary Die is one hundred years old yet ageless with a quick wit

And is always playing poker and bridge,

I love how Cam and Lillian who have dementia re-meet and care for each other

Every day

Over and over again as if they had always known each other, had always been married,

I love Dee who is both ruthless and endlessly kind and is always giving me planting and work advice,

Contributing to enriching the soil in my life.

I’d like you to put all of this in your speechless mouths and chew on it,

100 times before you swallow

Like Adeline does,

Taking all of it in,

Never a participant in a wasteful digestion.

Because I love these people like family, and I know they feel the same about me,

So I don’t need a pat on the back or to be your pet employee.

But when the time comes don’t be surprised in a few weeks,

When i leave for a place of work that pays more for the sweat in my stained blue shirt,

And an upper management that values me.