rat or drone

in the dark the alarm rings we rush through our ablutions
lunches are packed the coffee is made and we go
seeing the other waking souls groggily driving or walking

or waiting for buses or cabs as the week begins
this is the cycle of work the necessary duties the travel
for hours or miles to places designedly unfriendly

cold institutional walls or the grim acreage of cubicles
and the same dreary duties over and over again
while we wait for retirement or death to provide us a surcease