performance poetry
Performance Poetry is poetry out loud; poems brought from the page to the stage.
The American Nightmare
I have to get a job, buy a house, get married, have kids, only to go back to job that I hate, cuz I can’t afford the house, so I’m stuck at work where I can’t see my kids, and now my wife is cheating cuz I’m not there, and now my kids resent me cuz I’m always at work, but I’m always at work cuz now we’re divorced and I have to pay child support, cuz I was never home, always at work, working for someone who didn’t care about me, only my productivity, but I wasn’t producing so I had to work more, and now I’m burnt out, started drinking, overslept for work, now unemployed, and now I’ve lost the house, and I’ve lost the job, cuz I lost my job, now working fast food that expects so much, yet pays so little, not even a minimum wage, but I can’t get overtime, but they want me to pull overtime, cuz we’re short staffed, so I ask for a raise, but after working a year, I get to earn not $9 an hour, oh no, but $9.10 an hour, yippie for me, I can’t wait to spend all my treasures on a bag of chips and a soda for work cuz I can’t afford real nutritious food, I’m behind on rent now, cuz did I forget to mention I’m still paying child support?, oh right there goes my work bonus of $50, that I should be “oh so grateful for,” for it’s not even mine, I’m working to support children I don’t even see anymore, lying here awake trying not to listen to my stomach rumbling out of distress cuz all I had to eat was that outdated hot dog from the corner store, purchased with the dollar I found on the ground, at least I got to keep that, but oh no, food poisoning, and I can’t go to the doctor cuz my employer doesn’t provide insurance, but even if they did, I’d probably have to pay a $50 copay, which now I can’t even afford, I can’t even afford to get sick, do I have sick days boss?, no, of course I don’t, I call in sick, one day, two days, three, and now I can’t afford rent on the first, evicted and now standing on the street asking for money from people I don’t know, but the general consensus calls me lazy cuz I beg for money instead of getting a real job, but a real job won’t hire you cuz you have to have a home address, but it keeps on going, and going, and going on and on and on, but there has to be more to life than this.
By Joshua Montes 4 years ago in Poets
