The below poem is written by Ryan Taaffe-Fowle, a 2020 Young Norfolk Laureate, commissioned for Living Wage Week by the National Centre for Writing.
We are your living wage workers
Also known as your worked to the bone factory faeces.
Surely you remember us blokes who pack your boxes of card onto pallets worth more each, than we earn in a week.
You might know us as the late-night warehouse walkers,
or the supermarket shelf stackers
working 9 till 9 just to feed our daughters
we are struggling.
Hand me down clothes and food bank withdrawals
The living wage means we can cover our bills, this evening.
Surely you remember our mothers,
who woke before the sun to pack our lunches
then go work so hard that they lose their hair
and don't get paid the very bare
minimum.
Hand me down clothes and food bank withdrawals
The living wage means we can cover our bills, this evening.
You can download and read the poem here.