Minimum Wage

I sold my soul
For a minimum wage.
Put the collar 'round my neck,
and bent my back like a slave.

With every indignity
I get pushed a bit further.
With every inanity
I feel my soul being murdered.

My eternal being
Is ladened with your corruption.
I'm losing my ability
For a violent eruption.

A rebellion, a scene,
A means to break free.
To wrest back from your grip
The mortgage of me.

My job has become
Anticipating your incompetence,
A psychological profiler
documenting your pattern of ignorance.

I entered into this contract
Agreeing to relinquish my right,
To call out your ineptitude
For a compensation so slight.

I speak to your face
A futile common sense,
'Til you accuse me of insubordination
And demand my penance.

So I bite it back,
And try not to seethe,
But I'm miserable, loathsome,
Guilty by association with your sleaze.

With a sigh of longing
I'll dream of the time
And the look on your face
When I'll finally resign.

But the unknown devil
Strikes my heart through with fear.
Is it possible another place
Could be more Hell than here?

So like the songbird
That fears the open door of its cage,
I leave you with my soul,
And keep my minimum wage.