All Labor has dignity



All labor has dignity

Brown paper bagged lunches
with a cup of Joe
sitting on a counter with a waitress
standing over
rolled up newspaper in back pocket

Worn down shoes
that walk the back streets across the tracks
they earn the bread they eat
and  build for those in need

They live on common ground
worn and tired swollen hands
work their youth away

They dance like tight rope walkers
on high beams of steel
in cathedrals in the sky

Jack hammers riveters and hard hats
working rhythms of hot days
beneath a setting sun
 

About this poem

Inspired by book All labor has dignity by Martin Luther King

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Submitted by sunrasmoondog on June 07, 2022

Modified on March 09, 2023

30 sec read
2

Quick analysis:

Scheme X XXXXX XXXX XXX XXX XXX
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 525
Words 101
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 1, 5, 4, 3, 3, 3

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    "All Labor has dignity" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/128918/all-labor-has-dignity>.

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