A Honest Day's Work

Before the sun ever breaks the dark morning sky
He is awake in the middle of the night
His hair has gone silver as tribute to time gone by
His body creaks as he moves about
He prepares the same way every morning
Off to another day of work

An uneven swing of the door signals its time to be fixed again
He opens the closet of his tools for work and sets his things down along side them
The usual routine begins as he inspects what needs to be done
He shakes his head as he flushes the toilet that someone forgot to do themselves

His back creaks as he bends to pick up the trash that fell short of the can
With a jerk he pulls the full bag out and replaces it with a new one
He gets his bucket and brushes and cleans every toilet
With another brush he scrubs every sink of dried toothpaste and water

He returns to his closet and summons the mop and bucket
With the expertise of years behind him he quickly cleans the floors
With a cloth he even cleans the water fountain to a shine
He cleans and replaces all his tools and reaches into his pocket for a single dollar
He walks over to the same vending machine and purchases another root beer
just like he has for the last 40 years he sits on the couch and takes a deep sip
Another job well done

The soda becomes his only thanks as he finishes it with a deep sigh
The man collects his things and moves on to the next building
People begin to enter the building and make short work of his hours of cleaning
Already trash has hit the floor next to an empty can, where it will wait for him

By the end of the night the man returns to his small home
His wife prepares dinner as he quickly showers to eat
He says his prayers and lays down in the same spot next to the same woman
He sleeps well after an honest days work, until the clock goes off again



This one is dedicated to all the hard workers out there, who often go under appreciated. I wrote this after watching a janitor clean out the bathroom of my dorm every morning at about 5AM (i was waking up for spring training), he actually did his job well, and not more that an hour before he finishes people just walk all over the work he did. Think about someone else sometimes...