congratulations




louise carter



Once I had a job I didn’t like
but I kept going and after my three month trial
they made me permanent.
                               “Congratulations”
said a blonde-haired corporate type
          in the women’s toilets.
It was a compliment I didn’t know how to accept –
all I’d done was staved off debt by means
of turning up every day at 9am
and doing the things they wanted me to do
because I needed money to live.
          It struck me as strange
that simply surviving in the basest sense
(in the context of a first-world capitalist system)
could be cause for celebration.
                               Why is the price
we pay for food and shelter
             so convoluted?
As usual, this was a moment
I over-thought and should have resolved
right there and then with a simple “thanks.”
             If life’s a competition
then I’m one of the winners, I guess.
But what about everyone else?

more by louise carter

bedlam

stalemate

end of the pleasure era