I am here to clean your office
Empty the garbage
Keep the carpet clean
Vacuum around your polished executive business shoes

In your dignified two thousand dollar suit and tie
Your remote and serious face
Your elite voice and hundred dollar haircut
Your life so far from mine

Come live with me

I will show you how
First, as I vacuum beneath your desk
I will grab your ankle
and before you know is happening

I will take off your
Shinier than a black mirror
Fancy Italian shoes
And then your silk business socks

Come live with me

You are outraged but I sing
My song to you, whispering,
Soothing your worries
“Just try it – a new door for you to enter”

Your bare feet
Smooth and pale and pampered
White Collar feet
But not for long....

Come live with me

You brush your toes against
The rich leather of your shoes
And touch the designer logo on your socks
With the soles of your feet

Leave your fancy shoes and socks
To cry for their owner
Gleaming sentinels
Under your desk

Come live with me

Don't struggle anymore
Stand and I
Will take your manicured hand
To lead you, barefoot, out of your office

Forget the computer and your briefcase
And the cell phone and the MBA
And your office: just hear my voice calling to you
The soothing song of welcome to your new life

Come live with me

Here, take the service elevator
For the very first time
Here is my beat-up 1989 Ford
Just relax – no, it isn’t that Porsche you drove this morning

We will take the exit
Into my blue-collar neighborhood
There is my trailer
Now step right out

Come live with me

You stop at my door
On the very threshold of my trailer
Your bare toes resting on the dirty step
Still in that beautiful suit and that perfect tie

Every hair still in place
Manicured nails, cufflinks gleaming
You look at me in wonder
“What am I doing?”

Come live with me

“Never mind – it’s time to stop
thinking” I sing
Now step inside to your
New life, far from the corporate world

Settle down on my dirty sofa
Put your bare feet up
On my formica table with the crack
I will dismantle the upper-crust you

I take off your monogrammed gold cufflinks
Your wrist watch and your tie pin
Here - let me get that nice silk necktie off you
Now we will take off your high-and-mighty business suit

Come live with me

No more blue pinstriped business suits or ties for you
No more starched white shirts or designer underwear
Here are some overalls and a
Dirty t-shirt

Put them on
Get used to it
Keep the cufflinks
Only to scratch the soles of your feet

Come live with me

Tomorrow quit your job
Give away your stocks and condo
What is this in your suit?
Keys to your Porsche

No - you won't need them
Shoes? No. Just some plastic flip-flops
When you start work
Washing dishes at the diner down the street

Come live with me

I will cut up your tailored suit and shirt and tie
To make rags
So you can do the dishes, barefoot in the kitchen
While I am work

Here is a beer
NASCAR is on
You won't need to shave
Grow a beard and grow your hair

Come live with me

You will get used to it
I will train you to speak
A new language
Far from your office and your Ivy League diploma and your impeccable grooming

Six months from now
Belching and sweating as you wash the dishes in the diner
You scratch your beard
Those Italian leather dress shoes just a memory

Tweet

Comments on this poem/writing:

Click here to read other Poems by JJ

Copyright©2017-1999 by Rebecca R. Hammack

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: All Rights Reserved.   No part of this website, including all pictures and written words,  may be reproduced or copied in any manner from this website without  permission of the original author of the work.  All poetry and pictures herein remain the sole property of the original author and/or copyright owner.  All poetry on this website has been submitted by the original author of the work. To contact any author of the work please e-mail: dreamer@dreamersreality.com  so the proper person may be notified.