Sang Yun Jee
Work, or Lack Thereof
One who wishes to not do anything,
Or simply cannot do what’s given out.
He trudges through the hardening cement.
He toils on, to separate his feet.
Mosquitos alight upon his caked skin.
His eyelid twitches, only skin and bones,
But trudging on, ignoring all the world,
He looks and acts just like a puttering car.
Having no purpose, but for carrot and stick.
After cement, he finds yet other work,
His skin indistinguishable from the dirt,
The ineptitude overcomes boredom.
I do not cheer for he who is freed from strife,
But weep for things he left behind in life.
Sang Yun Jee‘s poems have been published in the AIPF Youth Anthology and the What Rough Beast feature of Indolent Books. He currently studies as a sophomore in the Philippines, and is the poetry editor for a student-run magazine, The McKinley Review. He received a gold medal in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
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