Category: Work

Although I growl when things are rough,
I find I’m not dismayed for
The other guy who has it tough,
For that’s what HE gets paid for!

by Ray Romine Thursday, September 21, 1950

A secretary, her boss finds, is
An unpredictable sort of whiz
Who learns to take dictation well
The while she also learns to spell
As well as how to use an eracer*
While said perplexed employer pays ‘er.

[*sic]

by Ray Romine Wednesday, June 23, 1954

There comes a time when we retire-
‘Tis your turn now, Sir Sautter ,
You’ll have a bit of leisure now;
Or, if you don’t, you oughtter.

So, take the time to read that book,
And fish, and hunt, and tinker;
And maybe find a few mushrooms;
Or emulate “The thinker”.*

You may eat onions now each noon,
And garlic; too, for dinner;
It’s been the outer man these years–
Now, satisfy the inner!

But, seriously, O Cloyd, we hope
(Give us your close attention).
You’ll stick around for years and years
To draw that HARD-EARNED PENSION!

* We wrote this “THinker” – if it’s any different
now, blame the printer!

by Ray Romine Tuesday, November 16, 1943

The cares of the work-a-day world
Are as nothing, to those that receive
All our attention once we’re on pension,
Which at 40 is hard to believe.

by Ray Romine Thursday, June 21, 1951

Caught in life’s avalanche,
Always downhill,
Weary of mind ,
And deprived of a will,

Trading his body
For his share of bread,
He lives in a cosmos
Of misery and dread.

Always he dreams,
Through the sweat, of a day
He might ascend
And be King for a day

So he, from the heights,
With a newly-found vim,
May trod on the fingers
Of those below him.

by Ray Romine Saturday, December 1, 1945

I fear hard work will be my lot,
Despite much ease-pursuing,
For I can’t find exactly what
They’ll pay me for not doing!

by Ray Romine Thursday, November 29, 1951

I’ll watch a power-shovel dig
For hours on end, and not grow weary;
I find the vision of a rig
Drilling wells is never dreary.

I love to see a plumber plumb,
A tinner tin, a sailor sail;
Or let me watch a drummer drum,
Or even some good bailiff bail.

I thrill to see a lineman climb–
All this, I’m sure, is indicating
That when it comes to labor, I’m
The type who’s non-participating.

by Ray Romine Saturday, February 23, 1952

For ages folks have admired the ant,
And sneered at the grasshopper’s folly. I can’t,
For though I work like the ant, and complete what I start,
I guess I’m really grasshopper at heart!

by Ray Romine Tuesday, May 27, 1952

When you stop work to sit and sigh,
I wonder what is causing
Such shiftlessness. But when it’s I,
I pass it off as pausing.

by Ray Romine Monday, August 28, 1950

A boy sat on the curbstone and dangled his feet in the gutter,
On a Sunday, too;
And a Deacon, passing, stopped to reprimand him, and passed on
at the lad’s mutter:
“What’s it to YOU?”

The Deacon forgot all about it, and the boy grew up to be a
prize sample
Of What Not To Be;
But the Deacon’s attitude seems an even worse example,
At least to me.

Not that Deacons, particularly, are in this respect lax,
But all of us,
While we ere engaged in helping God, seem a bit afraid we’ll
overtax–
How curious!

For we’ve the greatest tenacity, and prolific ambition,
Working for money;
Yes, we can muster a truly prodigious effort at our job or position,
And still be sunny- –

A half-hearted effort is just s half-hearted effort, whether
for good put forth,
Or in search of plunder.
I conclude by questioning: If my earning efforts just equalled
my Church-efforts’ worth,
Would I STARVE, I wonder?

by Ray Romine Sunday, October 17, 1943