Quay with Men Unloading Sand Barges, Vincent van Gogh (1888)

Working the Quay, Robert A Sieczkiewicz

End of another laborious day.
Work was exhorted in a heinous way.
A wage of a slave was their daily pay.
Life is never easy working the quay.

With calloused hands and backs nearly broken,
Spirits are targeted to be beaten,
To turn each victim into a cretin.
Many praying their death to be hasten.

Why for some must life be a living hell?
Why must many carry another’s yoke?
Is it so they can live extremely well?
Or is the social system that is broke?

To take advantage of a person’s plight,
Is worse than the thief who comes in the night.