Encomium to Low Wage Earners

Poem by Andy Oram

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Slowly, the coins mount
in their waxed cardboard offering-cup,
potentless pennies, magnanimous quarters,
an occasional dollar bill
left while dashing through, as the beneficiaries can only
mumly gaze.

Each lifting a coffee cup or an invoice or a print-out from the common pile
moves his feet along the circular path of an undistinguished toil,
crumpled under the load of procurement orders and unshelved returns,
obscurity for raiment,
dullness for ornament.