... read and listen to what people think about the work they do.
Public Service
Just a policeman in this run down town,
Where rules are made to be broken and respect ain’t around.
Man, why did you have to smother your son?
Woman domesticated with a loaded gun.
It ain’t easy being a boy in blue,
When everybody wants you, but no one likes you too.
Mother, I’m sorry but your son is dead,
Found with a needle in his arm in a squatters bed.
Maybe you shouldn’t have kicked him out at sixteen,
Just to follow the life of a whores dream.
Another fight in another rundown estate,
Where’s the love cos’ all I feel is hate?
Alcohol and drugs rule over the nine to five,
Tell me, how is society still alive?
Driving at eighty, streets lit with blue,
To yet another jumper, who can’t see life through?
Just a day at the office! Now home to my family,
I’m burnt out and stressed, can’t talk of the horrors I see
Now, just a teacher, working for the failing schools,
While the kids get high breaking all the rules,
Educating the next in line for our broken society,
Leaves me worried still, full of anxiety!
Whose doing detention,
The kids or the teacher?
Just a teacher in this rundown town!
Where rules are made to be broken and respect ain’t around.
Navy
2015
Makes me think that ...
Once committed to public service it seems always committed to public service. The poet, Navy moved from serving his nation to serving his community, from Royal Navy sailor to policeman. Although they are different it is clear that Navy has swapped one set of work related stress for another.The sights and sounds still seem to place a great burden on those who undertake this work on our behalf.
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