Who

Who makes up
Crossword puzzles,
Who makes up
The crosswords?

Who writes jam jar labels,
Who writes up the facts and tables
For our bottles, cans and tins?

Who designs designs
For toilet paper rolls,
And the patterns found on
Curtains, wallpaper, and dresses for dolls?

Who checks all teaspoons
Are an exact teaspoon measure?
Who designs the teaspoons,
And do they do it just for pleasure?

Because
It’s no noble life choice,
It seems to me—
The trite, mundane,
The easy-peasy.
No rewards,
No recognition,
No superheroes
On a mission.
So I ask again…

Who came up with traffic sign symbols,
Who makes money manufacturing thimbles,
Who dedicated their life to the study of cellulite dimples,
Who gives streets their names,
Who tests out board games,
Who claims
They invented envelope glue,
The suede shoe,
The ATM queue,
The petting zoo,
The colour blue—
Because it wasn’t me or you…
So who…

Who?!
WHO??!!
The pillars of society,
That’s who!!
Unknown and unappreciated
By you,
They toil—Nay!
Slave—away
So that you may
For granted take
All they make
And give to life
For its own sake!

And yet it never suffices!
But without their great sacrifices
It would be your fate
To live deprived of these life-saving devices—
And unable to concentrate
On the more important things life may
Indeed
Be all about…
Like finding the fucking remote control which you’ve
lost
Yet
Again.

September 2000