Labor Day

 

      

        The Man Who Rows

After the meal, the fortune cookie

yields, not a fortune, but its wisdom:

“The man who rows the boat

doesn't have time to rock it,”

it says. Who can deny its truth? 

Yet, if the boat needs rocking,

must not the man stop rowing?

There comes a time when the boat

cannot go on if the man rowing

is enslaved and bound with need.

The man must lay down the oar

and stop his rowing to demand

just due. A strike they call it,

a reminder that without the man’s

rowing the boat stands still 

or is taken by the current. 

Take care that justice is the rudder

of the boat, that the rower has a living

wage, a break to smell the roses 

on the shore, else the man 

must stop his rowing.

                                © Rafael Jesús González 2024