Slow  

Slow

because even after

endless hours of effort

the profits aren’t mine

Slow

because my body is stuck in service

of creating unnecessary things

Slow

because with each day

of this unfair exchange

my mind slips further into acceptance

So I’ll fight while I can still fight

to slow

the productivity

that will never benefit me

Image description – photo of the James River which is mostly obscured by a rusty transmission tower, the view underneath railroad tracks, and an expansive building. The blue afternoon sky is slightly hazy and grayish.

What inspired the poem Slow?

Promotions and promises of better pay, and maybe, just maybe, a chance to rest and take proper vacations- these are carrots, pulled on strings by corporate executives who profit off the backs of employees who give up so much of their lives yet receive hollow promises and inadequate compensation in return. People are asked to do more work than their bodies are meant to perform and once they manage to meet harsh deadlines or produce an outrageous amount of revenue, even bigger results are asked of them, all while employers use the common tactic of decreasing the number of workers available to perform tasks.

Workers are being shamelessly exploited and underpaid in the United States. Where does it end? What must employees give up in order to produce the results that should never have been asked of them? For some, the answer is to slow down and take care of themselves, to take time off instead of giving all their time to a corporation that doesn’t care about them, and to fight back against ridiculous deadlines by decreasing their pace to one that doesn’t feel like it’s pulling them into an early grave.