Love songs of the precariously employed - Enda Boyle

Waking up to the kiln heat of late August

The world slams into life all around you

A bin lorry bellows past your tenement

The noise batters against your window

On queue you are treated to another instalment

of The Erotic Adventures of the Couple Upstairs

To drown it all out you reach to turn on the radio

Instantly saccharine syrupy pop music seeps out

Anesthetized by easy sentiment you settle down

adjust your pillow and roll back onto your side

as the memory of your old job leeks from your head

your contract has expired, your last wages were paid

Life is now a yawn as you dangle between contracts

Gradually you rise from bed cook bacon and pancakes

and hum along to songs whose lyrics you can’t stand.