@env0writes C.Buck
Ko-Fi & Venmo: @Zenv0
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Photo by @env0
Scaffolding, hand-holding to the tower
Struggling to maintain grip on the power
Mesmerizing flame dances in a majestic arc
As sunlight cresting over sorrow’s dark
Outsiders ascending, defending their home
Thorns nestle sparrows, cloudy and gloam
Reach as you may for the highest of reaches
Carried on high by the loftiest speeches
March on and carry the weight of each stone
Building and building another man’s throne
I was walking down the steps of a metro station and there was this guy who was mopping the floors, and he was doing it so systematically, mopping one step from left to right, then the next one from right to left, adjusting his mop before every step so that every square inch of each step is covered. And some guy who was walking a few steps below me went “bade dhyaan se kar rahe ho yaar tum toh.”
You’re doing it so meticulously.
He said it with a mixture of amusement and sarcasm, the implication being “why are you putting so much effort in this menial task.” He didn’t reply, just hung his head down in a little embarassment and let the guy walk by. I felt bad for him. The guy had to do this incredibly monotonous task day after day, live his life in a loop, and he had somehow found some kind of purpose in that. He was still adamant on doing it right, even though he could have half-assed it, which I would get. And here I was, complaining to my friends everytime I met them how monotonous my comfortable corporate job that paid me so much more than this guy’s job was.
I don’t know who is right or wrong here. It is obviously okay to want more for yourself, but we need someone to do the boring menial tasks as well. I guess we just have to be content and make the most out of wherever we are. Someday we will escape these loops, and others will take our place here. Maybe it’s a rite of passage, before we move on to better things.
The Monday blues are real when you wake up and realize your bed was the best part of the day. You’re running on coffee and sheer willpower, trying to convince yourself that you’ve got this—when really, you just want a redo on the weekend.
The poor have always been steps of a ladder in the eyes of the rich. Just another thing to step on in order to reach the top. They don't care if the step breaks or crumbles, as long as they can continue climbing. To them, nothing matters but themselves, and the others of their kind climbing the ladder. They race, and race, and race, climb, and climb, and climb, yet they will never reach the top. This is because there is no "top." There is no "winning." There is no glorious "prize". Even if they could climb for eternity without death or sleep, they would find no enlightenment. The higher the ladder takes them, the more the light of humanity fades behind them. They are the kings of dust, the harbingers of their own downfall. Their legacy is the crumbled steps in their wake, the stench of blood and poison gas.
“It’s so beautiful, yet so tragic. The human condition, a tapestry of emotions woven in magic. They say hope is a beggar, but I’d pay her. For in her embrace, we find solace, a beacon for the human race.”
NaPoWriMo Vol. 3, 4.5.24
“That Ain't Playing Phaoroh at the American Dream“
What’s a dollar
Dollar bill
Y’all? Lying? Trying? Dying?
For this green?
Grass and trees and leaves fall all the same
Why play pretend with markets in the clouds
What is a dollar, a buck, a doe?
Although without I’m dying, trying, lying
Asking why I’m not enough
Dollar bill, y’all
Survive on these slip
Slip, slip, slippery slope
Pink slip car loan
Pink slip house loan
–Reminder I’m a man–
Can’t afford my home, my car, my life
What’s a dollar
An hour?
How many?
I’m spending my day working for so little
When the bed I sleep in, in the house I weep in
Will never be bought with that labor
Who enjoys the fruits of these planted labors?
What juice spills from distant lips?
What’s a dollar?
Dollar bill
Y’all aren’t all vying for more?
Trying for more
Dying for more?
Why must we play pretend–passing ice-coins
Wintered the weather about to maintain this illusion
This song and dance
Won at the tip of a lance
Am I to die on the streets where I sleep
After a hard days work
Gunned down by a passerby whose offense is taken
At my presence
In my work, when offense is taken
At my presence
What sense does it make to not be seen
Santa’s little helpers
Slaving away
So some other might gloat and tote
Can I sleep on it?
Wipe my weeping tears on it?
Who will take what I have
Leaving what little for tomorrow
And tomorrow’s tomorrow
Before I again have to borrow
So that this cycle of green
Of greed
Of grasses–greener
Perennially blooms; forebodes doom
Where is safe from this dollar?
Dollar bill
Y’all
The grass is always greener
The management always meaner
The bankers always keener
I am saving, graving, paving the way
But not to walk upon but on
I am the stone–ascended
Who can afford to be single?
Who can afford just one?
In a market that’s rising–water levels
Left to drown
I can swim–only so long
Tread water, dread water, fed water
And drown
Green stays afloat
It is soluble, solution, able and capable
Why must I live to work and not
Live and work
Where did the and’s go?
Where did the green go?
Barren and wearing no colors of life
The suburbs and cities and folks are all white
Washed and packaged for resale again
No space is owned save the barony lords
What is a dollar?
Dollar bill
Y’all
Learn all day
To work all day
‘Til your dying day
What is there to say?
“He was a busy and dedicated man to his work”
Will his work remember him
Remembered for his work
Who will grieve the cog replaced
The seed replanted
The crack that’s mended
When the old days are waning
The sunset soon fading
I will keep working for that return of the green
The average mean
The stacks slapped in my hand
To feed and afford what I can
Because what use is a dollar
That can never call her
Back
Buy my time
Back
Take it all
Back
What use is a dollar?
That can’t buy back my time wasted in youth
In adulthood so ruth-lessly sought
What is a dollar?
Dollar bill
Y’all
Aren’t struggle to own any bit of your life
Your car is on loan and your house and your wife
At the slightest inconvenience
The drop of margins
Swoops the executive C
On to elevate thee
Claiming your purchases are just temporary
They’ve licensed your time
Your work and
Your sight
All that you own
And all that you might
Work for that dollar
Plug and play on their game
I’ll keep dreaming,
Filling reem in -of paper
And dream of my paper
My dollar
Dollar bill
Y’all
@env0writes C.Buck
Ko-Fi & Venmo: @Zenv0
Support Your Local Artists!
Photo by my friend Mika
In a storm of gold, green, and red, Currencies scatter, dreams left unsaid. Among the jagged, shattered dreams, Can wealth fulfill what the heart truly needs?
Broken scales, wilted flowers, In the garden of greed, lost are the hours. What is the cost of endless pursuit, When the soul is left destitute?
Paper whispers of power and gain, Yet why does it leave a hollowed pain? Amidst the frenzy, ask yourself this: Can coins and bills bring eternal bliss?
In the chaotic dance of riches unfurled, Where lies the joy in a material world? Is happiness found in what you possess, Or in the quiet moments of tenderness?
Reflect on the splendor, the colors so bold, Does the value of life in numbers unfold? In the quest for more, what have you missed? Is true contentment bought or simply wished?