Me and My Work
Me and My Work - meaning Summary
Work as Steady Survival
A speaker describes a modest waterfront job that sustains a family and pays the rent. The poem presents everyday responsibilities—children, schooling, food—and an attitude of pragmatic pride. The narrator acknowledges hardship but resists pity, treating sympathy from strangers as inadequate or irrelevant. The voice emphasizes dignity and self-reliance: work is practical survival and family care rather than a demand for external consolation.
Read Complete AnalysesI got a piece of a job on the waterfront. Three days ain't hardly a grind. It buys some beans and collard greens and pays the rent on time. 'Course the wife works too. Got three big children to keep in school, need clothes and shoes on their feet, give them enough of the things they want and keep them out of the street. They've always been good. My story ain't news and it ain't all sad. There's plenty worse off than me. Yet the only thing I really don't need is strangers’ sympathy. That's someone else's word for caring.
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